


Unexpected

by The_Intuitive_Special



Series: Growing Up Haddock [1]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Children, F/M, Hiccstrid - Freeform, Marriage, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-25
Updated: 2013-12-10
Packaged: 2018-05-19 12:35:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 49,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5967592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Intuitive_Special/pseuds/The_Intuitive_Special
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Growing Up Haddock Story 1: Things are perfect after Hiccup and Astrid get married. They're happy with each other, the gang seems to be getting along better than ever, and even Stoick can be seen smiling these days. But things get complicated quickly when, after only two months of marriage, Astrid discovers that she's pregnant. Looks like the Hooligan heir will be born quite a bit sooner than anyone anticipated.</p>
<p>Only HTTYD and Riders/Defenders of Berk are canon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stormy Weather

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello to the AO3 crowd! I hope you find this as enjoyable to read as I did to write! And so, without further ado, I present the very first chapter of the very first story in the Growing Up Haddock series co-written by EmmerzK.

The subsequent months after Hiccup and Astrid's nuptials had been relatively uninteresting. As far as the village was concerned, nothing had changed. Even before their wedding, it had become a running joke in the village that you weren't a true resident of Berk unless you caught the couple fiercely kissing in a bizarre public location at least once. Gobber held the record at having caught them a total of eight times. It was becoming so frequent that the newlyweds would blush scarlet every time they encountered him.

Life had returned to normal for Hiccup and Astrid as well. They had stayed confined to their new residence, which was just a tad outside the hustle and bustle of the village. They had picked it specifically because they were less likely to be intruded upon and, though neither of them would say it outright, because it had an extra bedroom that would transition perfectly into a nursery. At that time, they were using it for their wedding gifts, which lay forgotten for quite a long time thanks to the distraction of each other.

At long last, the two emerged and got on with their business as though they hadn't been absent at all. Astrid in particular was beginning to grow tired of the older women in the village casting sideways glances at her thankfully flat stomach. She could occasionally hear them whispering about when she would give birth to the next chief. The idea was making her very uncomfortable but the telltale signs of nausea and weight gain had not overcome her so she was reasonably sure it would be a while before children were even a consideration. Of course, both of them _wanted_ children but it was far too early now. They had to focus on their new lives together before adding another new life to the mix.

Toothless and Stormfly had been rather annoyed at the antics of their humans. They loved the new house because the master bedroom had plenty of room for them both to comfortably fit with their owners. Most nights, especially after the wedding, Hiccup and Astrid wouldn't allow the dragons access to their room, instead instructing them to sleep in the sizeable pen next to the house. The dragons didn't mind it at first but the unpredictability was beginning to get slightly annoying. Their owners, for some reason, seemed to be especially friendly with them after the nights they didn't allow them into their room, though the dragons suspected there was an unrelated reason for this sudden affection. The way their owners grinned at each other while they fed them made them wonder what on earth they were doing that was so important.

Two days after they had emerged from their house (for longer than half an hour) and reopened the academy, Hiccup and Astrid had decided that it was time to attempt to find out what their friends had remembered in the last two months that they hadn't been studying.

The day before they emerged, Ruffnut and Snotlout had begun a publicized and very _affectionate_ relationship. Having finally decided that Astrid was off the table the day he had walked in on them kissing at the academy, he decided to pursue Ruffnut, who didn't mind being second choice. In fact, she had displayed a surprising amount of cleverness when it came to allowing him to chase her. Hiccup and Astrid didn't know she was capable of subtlety but she had proven them wrong. Now that the two were together, they weren't paying attention to a word either Hiccup or Astrid said. For completely understandable reasons, Tuffnut was also a bit preoccupied with his sister's new boyfriend. Fully expecting his words to fall on deaf ears, Hiccup plowed through his speech anyway.

"All right, everyone. As you know, there have been a few… distractions…" he looked over at Astrid, who winked at him. "But I wanted to see how much you all remember."

"I remember catching you and Astrid making out in the tool shed two months ago." Tuffnut said, scratching his head.

"Not about that!" Hiccup exclaimed, his cheeks turning slightly pink. That incident had been particularly embarrassing because he was halfway through taking off his shirt when Tuffnut had barged in.

"Oh yeah, and I caught you two behind the Great Hall!" Ruffnut piped up, apparently oblivious to Hiccup's discomfort.

"He meant about dragons!" Astrid shouted, attempting to restore calm.

"Yeah, I think I caught them in that tool shed too, come to think of it." Fishlegs chimed in.

"Yeah and I walked in on them in Gobber's office, that was weird." Snotlout added, laughing at the couple.

"If we could just shift our attention to the _dragons…_ " Hiccup continued, his face now reddening even more.

But apparently, Snotlout and Ruffnut had instead decided to shift their attention to each other's lips. Tuffnut looked disgusted and began to make very loud gagging noises. Ruffnut, without even looking up, punched him in the face, sending him flying backward. Hiccup smacked his face with his palm. It was clear he was not going to be able to get any of them to pay attention. Even Fishlegs seemed distracted by the sight of Ruffnut and Snotlout kissing, though no one knew exactly why.

After a few minutes of attempting to restore the peace, Hiccup and Astrid decided that it was a lost cause.

"Fine, just get yourselves killed if we ever get attacked." Astrid said, not bothering to raise her voice over Tuffnut's loud complaints over his sister's public displays of affection.

The newlyweds walked away with their dragons. Hiccup slid his hand into Astrid's, glancing over at her and grinning. The wind was blowing in her face, pushing her bangs out from in front of her eyes and making them seem to light up, like two small pieces of the clear sky. He felt his heart skip a beat at the radiance of his wife and allowed himself to bask in her beauty, wondering how he had gotten so lucky as to win her heart.

At long last, they found themselves at the edge of a cliff. They stood there, silently holding hands and staring into the horizon. Had they turned around and looked up at the sky, they would have noticed the looming dark clouds approaching rapidly but they were too caught up in how much they loved each other to notice something that mundane.

"Let's go for a ride." Hiccup said at last, squeezing Astrid's hand before letting go.

"I'll race you!" Astrid said with a mischievous grin.

Hiccup laughed. "Oh you're on!"

They quickly mounted their dragons and hurtled toward the sky. Hiccup was winning by the tiniest of margins but Astrid was catching up to him little by little. In their years as dragon trainers, they had started to match each other in skill. He still had a way with his dragon that no one else could aspire to replicate but she was beginning to figure out what exactly it was and, much to his irritation, she was starting to give him a run for his money.

Laughing with glee, the couple flew at a breakneck speed farther and farther away from Berk until it had become a speck in the distance. Their dragons began to grow tired and at long last, Hiccup finally conceded that it had been a tie.

"Yes!" Astrid shouted, pumping her fist in the air. "It took long enough but I knew this would happen!"

"Or maybe I just let you think it did." Hiccup said, the corners of his mouth tugging upward slightly.

Astrid suddenly looked crestfallen. "You _didn't_ …"

He finally laughed out loud. "You're right, I didn't. But you should have seen your face!"

Astrid immediately flew Stormfly close enough to punch him in the shoulder. This only made him laugh harder. He had come to view the ever present bruise on his arm as a badge of honor. Quick as a flash, he grabbed the front of her shirt and brought her in for a very passionate kiss. When they broke apart, Astrid narrowed her eyes.

"You've certainly changed a lot." she said, smiling seductively.

"I know." He replied, returning her seductive smile. "You like it."

"Was it that obvious?" she asked him, biting her lip.

He leaned in for a very gentle kiss. She felt as though her insides were on fire. Kissing on the backs of their dragons was, admittedly, a little bit difficult but definitely worth it. She had to stop herself from wondering what else they could do from atop a dragon…

She slipped her arms underneath Hiccup's shirt, feeling the smooth skin of his stomach. For a moment, she was tempted to tickle him but she thought that if he fell off his dragon, the moment would be ruined so she restrained herself. She dearly wanted to rip his shirt right off but it was a bit too cold for that so high in the sky.

Just as the two of them were getting caught up in their affection, they suddenly noticed the sky darkening considerably. Without any warning, rain began to pour down on top of them, soaking them completely.

"That doesn't sound good. We need to get back to Berk." Hiccup said, letting go of his wife and immediately directing his dragon forward through the sudden raging storm.

Their ears rang with the claps of thunder. Twice, Hiccup and Toothless were nearly struck.

Then it happened.

Hiccup heard a scream from a point far behind him. He turned around just in time to see a bolt of lightening come so close to Astrid and Stormfly, they had to roll over in midair to avoid it. His heart seemed to freeze when he saw his wife, his _beautiful_ wife, thrown off her dragon and begin to plummet toward the ground.

For a moment, he couldn't react. And then he couldn't stop himself. He shot forward, flying faster than he would normally have flown in such inclement weather but he couldn't find her falling form. The rain was too thick. A moment later, he knew it was too late. He would never catch her in time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was originally written in October-December 2013. That's why a lot of it defies current canon. But don't worry, our universe building is sure to suck you in regardless!
> 
> To those of you who don't know, this series has a bit of a cult following over on another fanfiction site and I thought it was about time to make the transition here. I've met some great people on the other site and I can't wait to meet all of you! I'm really excited about this!
> 
> All right, enough gabbing from me! I love reviews and comments so please don't hesitate to leave one!  
> ~KateMarie999


	2. Burnt Fish

"ASTRID!"

Hiccup knew his cries were impossible to hear over the roar of the wind and the sheets of rain pouring on his head but he couldn't stop himself. If something horrible happened to his wife, he would be inconsolable. Stormfly swooped around him, looking to him for direction but he had no idea where to fly. He knew she must have hit something by now. All he could do was hope that she wasn't dead.

He flew low over the turbulent water, his eyes peeled for any sight of his wife. Then he finally saw something. A head bobbed over the raging sea. Profusely thanking the gods, Hiccup dived down and scooped her out of the water.

"Astrid!" he cried once more, brushing her hair out of her face.

He felt her mouth and was horrified to realize that she wasn't breathing. He started to squeeze her stomach, hoping against hope that she was still alive.

"Come on, Astrid!" he whispered into her ear. "Not now! We just started a life together! Astrid, please!"

Her head lolled uselessly to the side. He squeezed her stomach again, vaguely thinking that she might have breathed in some water and that he could somehow squeeze it out of her. And to his amazement, it worked. Moments later, she spat out copious amounts of the sea and began to cough.

"Oh thank Thor!" he said to himself.

She wasn't conscious but at least she was alive. He instructed Toothless to fly as fast as he could to Berk, Stormfly flying slightly behind them. That had been too close! If he had lost her… he didn't want to think about it. He couldn't think about it. She was alive and that was all that mattered.

He managed to get through the storm, which was beginning to clear up, more easily than he thought he would have. He didn't like flying in terrible weather but it was a necessary evil in this case. They landed in front of the healer's house. He picked up his wife and carried her in, not caring that they were both soaking wet and dripping all over the floor.

"Help!" he called, praying that the healer was inside.

She was inside and, the moment she got a look at Astrid, she immediately instructed him to place her on the nearest bed. Astrid stirred slightly but remained unconscious. In the warm lamplight, Hiccup finally got a good look at her.

She was bruised all over. Her right arm was twisted in a very awkward position, obviously broken in multiple places. He guessed that she had landed on it in the water, which was what had ended up saving her life. Her breathing was shallow, probably from the water still in her lungs. But she was _alive_ and that was all that mattered. He took hold of her left hand, which looked uninjured, and squeezed it. He brushed her bangs out of her eyes once more.

"She'll be okay." The healer said after giving her a thorough examination. "But her arm is going to have to be set right now."

"Set?" he asked.

"I'm going to have to set it in the right position so it can heal properly. It's broken in three places so it's going to hurt a lot." she said, looking very apologetic.

He looked at his wife's face again and hoped that she was just unconscious enough not to feel the impending pain. He nodded once and the healer slowly twisted the mangled arm.

The most horrible, anguished, gut-wrenching scream Hiccup had ever heard filled the space, echoing off the walls. Astrid's eyes flew open and she bolted upright, trying to tug her arm out of the healer's hands but finding it impossible to do so. She stared wide-eyed at her arm, which was a sickly purple color.

"Astrid, Astrid, it's okay!" Hiccup put his arms around her, partially to hold her still but mostly to comfort her. "She's setting your arm so it'll heal right."

"Then what the _Hel_ was that?" she gasped, still desperately trying to remove her arm from the healer's hands.

"It's going to hurt." The healer repeated. "But I have to do it or you'll never be able to use your arm again."

Astrid nodded and then squeezed her eyes shut. Never in her entire life had she felt pain like this. It was as though someone was slowly ripping her arm to pieces. She could hear her cries echoing all around her but didn't consciously remember making a sound. Several times, she feared she would pass out but she recovered only to be met with yet another stab of white-hot pain.

Hiccup held her still, shutting his eyes and trying to ignore her cries. But he couldn't block out the sound. Every scream of pain was like a dagger stabbing him in the heart. He thought about what Astrid had told him long ago about how horrible he had sounded when Gobber had to amputate his foot. He wasn't consciously aware he had made any noise but if it sounded anything like that, he felt suddenly guilty for making Astrid go through what he was going through at that moment.

After what felt like hours, the healer was finally finished. She grabbed a heavy bandage and tightly wrapped the arm in it. Astrid was taking deep breaths, forcing herself not to cry. She felt as though she had to be strong for Hiccup, who would be hovering over her like a mother hen regardless, and she knew that if she shed any tears, trying to live with him would be impossible.

At long last, it was over. Hiccup had climbed into the bed next to her and allowed her to lean on his chest. Thanks to the rain, he wasn't warm but it was still comforting to have him nearby.

"I'm sorry." he whispered once the healer had left.

"Why?" she asked, shutting her eyes and hoping to fall asleep before Hiccup got going on one of his tangents.

"Because I couldn't catch you." he replied, squeezing her a little tighter. "I saw you fall. I should have been able to catch you."

"It's not your fault." She said, rolling her eyes. She had been expecting this. "I was the one who fell off my dragon."

"Yes but…"

"Hiccup, if I hear one more word about how you're responsible for what happened, I will go crazy and probably ruin my arm by hitting you over and over." she interrupted.

Her husband was silent for a while as he processed this information. At long last, he decided that he wanted to make sure her arm healed and so he would have to hold his tongue until she got better.

* * *

The next few days were very boring. The healer wouldn't allow Astrid to leave the house until she was certain the arm would heal properly. By the fourth day, Astrid had begun making awkward left-handed drawings mapping out her escape from the house. They were completely illegible but Hiccup thought they were wonderful all the same.

Feeding herself was a different story. Astrid was given hot soup every day for the first few days and she kept spilling it on herself in her attempts to eat it with her other hand. Hiccup offered to feed her but she adamantly refused, preferring to stain her clothes rather than have her husband treat her like an invalid. If she had been doubtful about his abilities as a father one day, she was convinced it had been in vain. He was treating her the way she had always wished her father had treated her when she had gotten sick as a child. It seemed a lot more annoying when Hiccup did it but she couldn't help appreciating it all the same.

Finally, she was released with strict orders to take it easy and try to keep her arm still so she wouldn't injure it further. Her arm throbbed but she had felt worse pain. In fact, the thing that was most uncomfortable was the _itching_. She was reminded of Hiccup's occasional complaints of itching in his absent left foot and how incredibly annoying that could be and wondered if it was anything like this. She also had random bouts of nausea and back pain but she could ignore those as well.

Stormfly greeted Astrid the moment she emerged from the healer's house. The dragon crooned happily at seeing her trainer doing much better. Astrid reached out an arm and stroked her gently.

"Don't even think about it." said Hiccup from directly behind her. "No flying until your arm is better!"

Astrid whipped her head back to face him. "Oh really?" she asked dangerously.

Hiccup crossed his arms in a vain attempt to look intimidating. "Yes really. Flying is what almost killed you; you need to give yourself time to recover."

Both Astrid and the Nadder were giving him mutinous glares. He narrowed his eyes and was fully aware of how ridiculous he looked; he never could perfect his own version of Astrid's glare, which could immobilize him completely. He would have to figure it out before becoming a father or his children would walk all over him.

"Yes well you were flying when you lost your foot and, in case you haven't noticed, I still have my arm so I think I'll be okay." Astrid rolled her eyes as she mounted her dragon.

"No!" Hiccup cried. "Astrid, stop!"

"Hiccup, when have I ever listened to you?" Astrid asked, giving him a very mischievous grin.

"Only when you feel like it…" he admitted.

"Exactly, so if you want to stop me, you'll have to catch me." The dragon immediately shot into the air.

Hiccup turned around and was pleased to see his dragon ambling forward, obviously having missed the argument.

"Come on, bud!" Hiccup exclaimed, mounting his dragon and immediately taking off.

Yet again, they had completely forgotten to check the sky. Fortunately for them, it was clear so there would be no second incident. This was something Hiccup would realize hours later before smacking himself in the face and marveling at how badly he was doing his job as a husband.

Astrid and Stormfly had gotten a large head start so Hiccup and Toothless had to fly even faster to catch up. He doubted that Astrid would be flying her dragon at the breakneck speed she had flown the previous week but he didn't want to take any chances. At last, he caught up to them.

"Astrid, I meant what I said!" he called.

"Oh I know!" Astrid laughed. "I just didn't listen!"

"Why does no one ever listen to me?" Hiccup muttered furiously. "You need to come down! You just got hurt! Can you even move your fingers?"

Astrid grinned and lifted her left hand, wiggling her fingers in plain sight of her husband.

"I didn't mean _those_ fingers!" he rolled his eyes.

"You didn't specify!" she sighed. "No, Hiccup, I can't move my other fingers yet but it doesn't matter. They're bandaged and everything will be fine."

"Yes, because you never put yourself in _any_ danger." Hiccup said sarcastically.

"Of course not. Thank you for figuring that out." Astrid winked at him.

He knew it was impossible to convince her to come down. There was nothing he could do except glare at her for a few seconds (which merely made her laugh) and fly away. Oh well, he thought, he hadn't flown in a while anyway, he might as well enjoy it.

But the nagging feeling that Astrid would end up injuring herself again completely ruined the moment.

* * *

He had been waiting in their new house for over an hour, pacing back and forth and muttering to himself, when Astrid finally arrived at home.

"Where were you?" he exclaimed the moment she walked in through the door. "I was all about to fly around Berk looking for you!"

"Relax, Hiccup." Astrid said, taking a deep breath. "I was just enjoying my freedom."

"You're not usually out this late." Hiccup crossed his arms again. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"Oh stop being so… so…" Astrid waved her left hand up and down.

"You just gestured to all of me!" he retorted.

"Yeah! That!" she shouted. "Stop it!"

"Stop being… what are you… I'm so confused right now!" he put his face in his hands.

Astrid decided to take her husband's irritation as a signal that it was time to make herself dinner. She reached into a cupboard and got out a pan.

"What do you think you're doing?" Hiccup asked, giving her a very penetrating stare.

"Making myself dinner. I'm hungry." Astrid replied, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Let me get that for you."

"No!"

"The healer said you should take it easy!"

"Get your hands off me!"

"Just give me the pan!"

A few minutes later, Astrid glared at Hiccup as he placed two fish on the pan. He had won that struggle only because she didn't have her right arm. If she'd had full use of both arms, she'd have been able to pin him down and roast the fish while keeping him immobilized. But _no_ , she just had to land on her stronger arm.

In a few moments, the dragons looked on in horror as the fish blackened in the pan. A horrible smell filled the house.

"For the love of Thor, Hiccup, you can defeat a Red Death with one plasma blast and run a dragon training academy almost singlehandedly but you can't figure out how long a fish has to cook in the fire before it burns?" Astrid blurted out in irritation.

"I… I'm sorry." said Hiccup, looking sheepish.

In any ordinary circumstance she probably would have forgiven him on the basis of the pathetic look he was giving her but his annoying behavior earlier that day was still eating at her.

"Sometimes I can't stand it!" she shouted, turning red in the face. "I can't handle your ineptitude!"

"Ineptitude… Astrid, all I did was burn a fish…"

Astrid stomped out of the house, thinking vaguely that she would see if Fishlegs had anything to sooth her growling stomach.

* * *

Astrid didn't return that night. Hiccup wondered where on earth she would have slept but he didn't want to think about it.

"Great, Hiccup." He said to himself as he got out of bed the next morning. "You've been married for less than two months are your wife already hates you. That's got to be some kind of record."

He winced as he placed his foot on the cold floor. Toothless made his familiar gurgling noise and Hiccup knew that if he didn't feed his dragon soon, his wife would not be the only one who was angry at him.

"All right, bud. I've got some fish downstairs." he said as he attached his prosthetic foot.

He slowly walked down the stairs, still yawning and stretching. He wasn't usually so lethargic in the morning but his arguments with his wife had worn him out. As he reached the barrel of fish, Astrid burst into the house. Her face was pale and her eyes wide and Hiccup immediately knew something was wrong.

"Hey." he said in an attempt to stay friendly. "You… you okay?"

"Me? Yes! Why wouldn't I be?" Astrid snapped.

Hiccup tossed a fish to Toothless, who gulped it down immediately and continued gurgling at him.

"Because I'm your husband and I can tell something's wrong." Hiccup replied, tossing another fish into Toothless' mouth.

"Hiccup, please. I… what happened yesterday, I'm sorry but I don't want to talk about this." Astrid awkwardly took off her shoulder armor with her left hand.

"Where were you?" Hiccup asked, softening his gaze.

"I went over to see Ruffnut. And she… I can't talk about this right now." Astrid took a few steps over to the stairs.

"Astrid, please. You can tell me anything. I'm sorry that I was being… me yesterday. I'll stop, I get that I was being overbearing. I was thinking about it last night and…"

"It's not that, Hiccup! I… please don't… I can't have this conversation right now. I have a lot to think about!" Astrid climbed the first step.

"What's wrong? Did I do something? Did Ruffnut do something?"

"Hiccup, please…"

"Just tell me what's going on!"

"Fine!" Astrid whipped her head around to face him, crossing her arms and glaring at him. "Fine, if you have to know right this second!"

"Well I don't… what are you…"

"Hiccup… I… I'm pregnant!" Astrid exclaimed.

And with that, she stomped up the stairs to their room, leaving Hiccup to stand there in stunned silence.


	3. A Surprising Discovery

Astrid stomped out of the house, leaving the smell of burnt fish and her husband behind. She wasn't sure why she had been so angry with him. She wasn't usually so volatile. What had changed? In a moment, she decided that she needed the company of other women. The only other woman she could think of that wasn't her mother (her mother would just glare at her and tell her she was being immature) was Ruffnut. Not comforted by this thought, she changed direction and headed over to Ruffnut and Tuffnut's house.

She took a moment to thank the gods that Tuffnut had decided to take Barf and Belch to get their teeth cleaned by Gobber. He tended to interrupt every discussion Ruffnut and Astrid tried to have with completely random outbursts. Snotlout was also nowhere to be seen, which was definitely a good thing.

"Why are you here?" was Ruffnut's greeting when Astrid knocked on the door.

"I'm mad at Hiccup." Astrid admitted.

"Oh. Okay." Ruffnut said, opening the door to let Astrid in.

As usual, Ruffnut didn't press for details. Astrid liked this about her sole female friend. She wasn't one to confess her feelings and Ruffnut didn't have patience for them anyway. If she wanted to get emotional about something, Astrid knew her husband would be more than happy to let her cry on him for hours. Not that she ever did anything so ridiculous…

"You look sick." said Ruffnut quite suddenly.

"Yeah, I broke my arm." Astrid replied, pointing to her bandaged arm.

"Not that kind of sick. Like, you look like Tuffnut does every time he breathes in Barf's gas." Ruffnut shrugged. "Except you don't fall over. I like it when he falls over."

Not enjoying the mental picture this statement sparked, Astrid rolled her eyes. The idea of having a deep conversation with Ruffnut was laughable. Times like this made her miss Heather.

"I'm not sick." Astrid said bluntly. "I just fell and hit my arm."

Ruffnut shook her head. "No, it's still different. Like, your face is all white and kind of green and you're sometimes hunched over like you just got punched in the back. Did Hiccup punch you in the back?"

"No, of course not." Astrid said. "Why would you think that?"

"Sometimes Tuffnut punches me in the back."

Why did this information not surprise her in the slightest? Truth be told, the smell of burnt fish did make her feel sick. But the wave of nausea would subside like all the other ones.

"I'm just really hungry, that's all." Astrid said, scanning the house to see if there was any food out.

"Oh. I have bread." Ruffnut picked up a loaf and offered it to her. "It's actually Tuffnut's but I'll just tell him Barf ate it."

Astrid chuckled and accepted the loaf. She ravenously tore it apart and ate it in a most decidedly unladylike manner. Her mother would have been furious but Ruffnut couldn't care less.

"Wow, you were really hungry." Ruffnut said, raising her eyebrows at Astrid's behavior. "Want more? I think Tuffnut has some fish I can cook over the fire."

At this point, Astrid was so hungry she didn't care that she was stealing from Tuffnut. Knowing the twins, there was probably food all over the place. They tended to eat almost as much as Fishlegs (but unlike Fishlegs, they never put on much weight).

As the fish sizzled over the fire, a pleasant but potent smell filled the house. For some reason, this made Astrid's nausea nearly unbearable. She stood up and pelted out of the house. As soon as she got outside, she vomited in the bush next to the front door.

She walked back into the house, feeling a lot better but rather embarrassed. Ruffnut stared at her for a few seconds, obviously deep in thought.

"Are you pregnant?" she asked at last, raising an eyebrow.

Astrid laughed out loud. "No way! That's impossible!"

"Oh. So you get that annoying thing every month?"

Astrid did _not_ want to discuss that with anyone, least of all Ruffnut. But the question made her think back. Had she gotten it? She tried to remember the last time… it had been… oh _Thor_ , it had been a few weeks before her wedding. In her excitement, she hadn't realized it wasn't happening anymore... which meant... her eyes widened.

"Oh gods… oh gods…" Astrid sat down, suddenly dizzy.

Her mother had told her about the back pain, the nausea, the mood swings, the dizzy spells… this couldn't be happening. Not now. Oh _gods_ , not now. She felt a knot in the pit of her stomach. Or was that the baby? Oh gods, a baby... there was a _baby_ growing inside of her body. A brand new human life... inside of her... growing... it was going to get bigger and then she was going to have to give birth. She didn't know _anything_ about babies! _Hiccup_ didn't know anything about babies! Oh gods, Hiccup... how was she going to tell him?

Ruffnut thrust a plate with a perfectly cooked fish in front of her. Had she not realized this horrifying bit of information, she would have marveled at the fact that Ruffnut had managed to actually cook something without burning it.

"Woah. You're pregnant! That was fast!" Ruffnut shouted.

"Keep your voice down! I don't want everyone finding out!" Astrid whispered hurriedly. "And yes, I think so. Oh gods, I'm not ready for this."

"But you're gonna tell Hiccup, right?" Ruffnut asked, cocking her head like a confused dragon.

"Yeah… yeah probably. Eventually." Astrid put her head in her hands.

Ruffnut's eyes suddenly widened. "Wait, Hiccup's the dad, right?"

Astrid kicked her in the shin as hard as she could. Ruffnut didn't react. Years of abuse from Tuffnut had given her very thick skin.

"Of course Hiccup's the dad! Who else would it be? No! Don't answer that!" Astrid said from between her fingers.

At that completely inopportune moment, Tuffnut walked into the house, banging the door behind him. He was carrying a single, bloody tooth.

"Look! Gobber took this out of Belch's mouth!" he said excitedly, brandishing it in front of Ruffnut's face. "Why's she here?" he asked, gesturing to Astrid.

"She's mad at Hiccup for getting her pregnant." said Ruffnut unabashedly.

"But you can't be pregnant. You're not fat!" Tuffnut said rather loudly.

Both Ruffnut and Astrid kicked him in the knees so hard, he fell over. Ruffnut burst out laughing.

"Keep your voice down! I'm not ready to tell anyone else!" Astrid shouted.

"Fine, whatever. So is Hiccup mad at you too?" Tuffnut asked, sitting down next to his sister.

Astrid didn't enjoy being put on display. The twins were staring at her as if expecting her to give birth any second. Both sets of eyes kept flitting down to her stomach. She placed her hands over it, hoping to avert their wandering eyes.

"He doesn't know." Astrid admitted. "I only just figured it out. Hey… can I sleep here tonight? I don't think I want to go home right now."

"Okay. You can have Tuffnut's bed!" Ruffnut exclaimed happily.

"Where am I gonna sleep?" Tuffnut whined.

"You can sleep in the pen with Barf and Belch." Ruffnut said automatically.

"Hmm… okay." Tuffnut said and without another word, he got up and walked outside.

* * *

Astrid walked into her house early the next morning. She was hoping Hiccup would not be awake yet so she could have time to think about how she would tell him… or _if_ she would tell him right that second. She could still smell the burnt fish from the night before and it made her stomach lurch uncomfortably. She hoped she wouldn't be sick on the floor.

Hiccup was standing by the barrel of fish when he noticed her.

"Hey." he said, smiling grimly. "You… you okay?"

She was a lot of things but okay wasn't one of them.

"Me? Yes! Why wouldn't I be?" she said far too quickly.

She watched Hiccup toss a fish into Toothless' mouth without even looking at him.

"Because I'm your husband and I can tell something's wrong." he said, giving her a very concerned look.

"Hiccup, please. I… what happened yesterday, I'm sorry but I don't want to talk about this." Astrid took off her shoulder armor. She didn't even want to _think_ about it, much less talk about it.

"Where were you?" Hiccup gave her what she thought was his attempt at a gentle look. Since he was obviously anxious about her, it came off as very fake.

"I went over to see Ruffnut. And she…" No. The words wouldn't come out of her mouth. It wasn't enough that it was _Ruffnut_ who had made her realize she was pregnant but she couldn't bear to see her husband lookingat her like... like _that_. "I can't talk about this right now." Astrid repeated, hoping that he would leave her alone if she walked toward the stairs.

Hiccup slowly followed her. "Astrid, please. You can tell me anything. I'm sorry that I was being… me yesterday. I'll stop, I get that I was being overbearing. I was thinking about it last night and…"

She was begging the gods to make him shut up. How had he misunderstood when she had told him _twice_ that she didn't want to talk about it?

"It's not that, Hiccup! I… please don't… I can't have this conversation right now. I have a lot to think about!" Astrid put her foot on the first step. Please let him leave her alone…

"What's wrong? Did I do something? Did Ruffnut do something?"

Of course he would automatically assume he was to blame. He was already sore over being unable to catch her when she fell off Stormfly. _Gods_ , he was annoying. She felt helpless, unable to get him to stop nagging her. All she wanted was to be alone…

"Hiccup, please…"

Hiccup took another step toward her. "Just tell me what's going on!"

Something suddenly snapped inside of her. She whirled her head around and glared at her husband. He was going to regret saying that.

"Fine!" she snapped. "Fine, if you have to know right this second!"

Hiccup faltered slightly, shrinking away from her glare. ""Well I don't… what are you…"

"Hiccup… I…" Astrid paused. She didn't have to tell him now. For a moment, she couldn't form the words. His eyes shone with compassion and concern… she had to say it. He deserved to know. "I'm pregnant!"

She couldn't take it anymore. She turned her head away from him and pounded up the stairs. As soon as she got into their room, she flung herself on her bed, praying that he wouldn't follow her. After a few minutes, she decided that he probably wasn't going to barge in and expect her to talk about it so she curled up and fell asleep.

* * *

Hiccup stood stock still, his mouth agape and his hand frozen on the banister. He felt as though his world was spinning and that if he moved, he would fall upwards and disappear into the sky.

A few minutes later, he felt a gentle nudging on his back. Toothless crooned, his eyes wide with concern. Slowly, Hiccup moved his hand over and stroked the dragon's nose.

"I'm a dad." he said at last. The moment the words tumbled out of his mouth, his insides seemed to freeze completely.

He sat down on the lowest step, feeling very dizzy all of a sudden. Toothless plopped himself down next to his trainer. The human absentmindedly stroked the dragon's neck and back while using his other hand to hold up his head.

"This is going to be a very scary next few months." said Hiccup, taking a deep breath. "If Astrid and I fight over something as dumb as burning fish, how are we going to raise a child?"

Toothless looked at him as though he desperately wanted to assure his human that everything would be okay. He whined quietly.

"I need to talk to someone. I mean… I can talk to you but… I'm sorry, bud. I need some advice and I doubt you know anything about fatherhood." The dragon whined again. "Hey, you can still come with me. Let's go."

Hiccup immediately stood up and walked out of his house. The sunny day outside swam in front of his eyes and it was nothing short of a miracle that he managed to get to his father's house without tripping over something or getting lost along the way.

Stoick was feeling Thornado when he saw his son slowly sauntering over to him, almost as if he was getting over a blast from a Flightmare. His body was rigid, his eyes glazed over.

"Hiccup?" Stoick said, taking a few steps toward his son. "What's going on?"

Hiccup seemed to snap out of his reverie rather abruptly. He stared at his father as though he had only just noticed he was there. He opened his mouth but no sound came out. After a few seconds, he shut it with an audible snap.

Stoick knew something was very wrong because his son's silence was often a bigger indicator than his chattiness. Hiccup had a tendency to blurt out everything on his mind as quickly as possible. It was yet another way he differed from his father.

"All right, son, sit down." Stoick grabbed the young man by his shoulders and directed him to a chair resting against the side of the house.

Half tempted to splash water on his son's face, Stoick exchanged a glace with Toothless, who cooed at him.

"Problems with Astrid?" Stoick asked. Discussing feelings wasn't something he excelled at but Hiccup had clearly come to him for a reason.

"You could say that." Hiccup said at last, not making eye contact. "If you want to get technical, I had a lot to do with it myself."

Stoick sighed. "Listen, son, what happened on the dragons, that wasn't your fault. You've got to stop beating yourself up about it. These things happen and-"

"Astrid's pregnant!" Hiccup blurted out.

Whatever Stoick had been expecting, it certainly wasn't _that_. For a moment, father and son stared at each other in silence, neither able to figure out what to say and both feeling rather awkward.

"Oh…" Stoick said. "That was fast."

"Yeah."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

Hiccup stared at his knees. "I don't know. I mean… I did this…"

"You _both_ did it." Stoick interrupted. "Don't try to pin this on yourself."

"Right, I know. But we should have been more careful." Hiccup put his head in his hands.

"Well you weren't and it happened." Stoick said sternly. "And now you've got to face the consequences. You and Astrid are going to have to stick together and work out all your differences for that baby."

"I know, dad." Hiccup said from between his fingers. "But... I'm not ready for this. _We're_ not ready for this." His head shot up. "Yesterday, we got into an argument over fish. _Fish_ , dad! It was stupid!"

Stoick laughed uproariously. Hiccup stared at him, slowly raising an eyebrow. As soon as Stoick calmed down, he began to speak.

"The day we found out you were on the way, your mother and I got into an argument over a tile in the roof." Hiccup continued to stare blankly at the man, still confused as ever. Stoick continued. "She claimed that it was loose and it was making the house cold. I told her she was being completely unreasonable. She started crying, we kept shouting… after it was over, I was convinced that we would never be able to raise you properly."

Hiccup's mouth dropped open in surprise. He had no memories of his mother ever shouting at his father. In fact, up until she died, they had been quite calm and nurturing. Even after she died, Stoick tried his best to be patient with his son but Hiccup had, admittedly, not been an easy child to raise.

"I know it seems like a lot now. And it is. Having a kid is the most difficult thing you will ever do." Stoick smiled. "But it's also the most rewarding."

"Well... it... I mean it happened so fast, I... what am I supposed to do?" Hiccup asked, continuing to stare at his father with wide eyes.

"Well the first thing you have to do is make sure Astrid knows that you're going to be there for her." Stoick said, pulling out a chair and sitting across from his son.

"She knows that. I mean, why would I leave? Where would I go?" Hiccup asked. The very thought of leaving Astrid made him physically ill, exacerbated by the thought of leaving her alone while carrying his child.

"Tell her again. She needs to know that you're going to be there no matter what happens." Stoick made sure Hiccup was meeting his gaze before he continued. "And then you have to let nature take its course. Make sure you're there every step of the way. I don't pretend to know much about... _this_ , but I do know that the next few months are going to be rough. For both of you but especially for her."

Hiccup's eyebrows furrowed. "Is this what you did?"

"It's what I should have done. I wasn't as attentive as I could have been. Even after you were born. I guess that's why we've always been..." Stoick trailed off and then cleared his throat.

"Okay... and what about when the baby comes? How do I... when will it..."

"You've got plenty of time to think about that. Right now is about being there for Astrid." Stoick paused for a moment before standing up quite suddenly. "Now I've got some things to do so if we're finished..."

"Right." Hiccup stood up. "I guess I'll... I'll go talk to Astrid."

And with that, he sauntered away, his dragon at his heels. He felt considerably less dizzy than before, which was definitely a good thing, but his stomach was still twisting. He felt completely unprepared for this. But, just as he got to the front door of his house, he made a decision. He was going to act happy about this until he _was_ happy about it. And it was all going to start at that moment, as he pushed his front door open.

* * *

Astrid woke up several hours later. It took her a few minutes to figure out why she was so nervous. Earlier that day, she didn't even want to look at her husband. Now she desperately wanted him there.

Almost as if on cue, Hiccup walked into their room with a plate full of cooked fish. All of them looked delicious.

"You did it." Astrid said, smiling and immediately cutting one up the moment the plate was set in front of her.

"Yeah well… those are the ones that turned out okay. Don't ask how many tries it took me to figure it out."

Astrid chuckled. "I'm sorry for snapping at you."

"It's okay, you don't have to apologize…"

"Hey." Astrid suddenly grabbed the front of Hiccup's shirt and brought his face inches away from her own. "Do not make excuses for me just because of the baby."

"Oh… okay." Hiccup said, startled. "Well yeah, you shouldn't have snapped at me."

"Much better." Astrid released him.

They were silent for a while. Hiccup watched as Astrid began to feed herself pieces of the fish. She was getting much better at doing things left handed.

"How's your arm?" Hiccup asked, feeling very awkward all of a sudden.

"It still itches. But it doesn't hurt so much anymore." Astrid admitted through a mouthful of fish. "Hiccup, I'm sorry I blurted it out like that and then ran off. I shouldn't have done that."

"I made you do it."

"Don't blame yourself for… actually yeah you did." she smiled. "Okay so that was partially your fault too."

"Nice to know you're willing to let me take the blame when I really deserve it." he said, smiling back.

"You know I will." Astrid took his hand. "And this won't be the last time either. We've got a life full of stupid mistakes to make."

"Yeah." said Hiccup, staring at their clasped hands. "But this baby isn't one of them."

"No." she admitted. As uneasy as she felt, her baby didn't _ask_ to be conceived. "I agree but… how are we going to do this?"

"Well first of all, we're going to get everything all ready." Hiccup squeezed her hand. "We'll move our wedding gifts out of the extra room and get it ready and then we'll sit back and wait for the baby to get here. And until then, I'll do everything for you…"

"Oh gods, Hiccup, you better not-"

"I'm kidding." Hiccup winked at her.

She let go of his hand to punch him on the shoulder. They stared at each other for a few seconds. Hiccup felt slightly overwhelmed at how much he loved his wife. She had just woken up, was pale in the face, and had bags under her eyes but she was _so_ beautiful. Her bright blue eyes were still clouded with uncertainty but he knew that it was his job to make her feel loved, to make her feel confident that everything was going to be okay. He felt honored to have been given that task. He lay down on the bed next to her.

Astrid snuggled into her husband the moment he was next to her. She could hear his heartbeat through his shirt; it was such a soothing sound and it seemed to clear her mind of all the clutter that had been there moments before. She felt him put his arm around her and squeeze her shoulder. Slowly, she placed the plate of food on the floor so that she could turn to face him. He smiled warmly at her, melting her heart completely. Even her broken arm stopped hurting for those few seconds. She brushed her lips against his. His smile widened and he gently kissed her on the cheek.

"You know… I've been thinking about it." He whispered to her, his breath tickling her cheek.

"Hm?" she asked, not sure she could form any words.

"I'm going to be happy either way." He kissed her on the cheek again. "But I kind of hope it's a girl."

Completely against her will, several tears forced their way out of her eyes. She hastily tried to brush them away but she couldn't stop Hiccup from seeing them. She knew exactly why he had said that and it was too much. Her emotions had been close to the surface ever since finding out she was pregnant but somehow, she didn't care as much as she would have long ago. Gone were the days when she had put up her defenses against emotional releases around her husband. The rest of the village might have thought of her as a fierce Viking but she knew Hiccup saw someone different. And even in her moments of weakness, he still saw her strength. Perhaps that was why she loved him so much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you know, this chapter refers to a one-shot I haven't posted here yet. Let's just say there's a reason Astrid gets teary when Hiccup announces he's hoping for a girl.


	4. Compromises

Hiccup woke up the next morning with a face full of Astrid's long, golden hair. He slowly brushed it out of his eyes and snuggled closer to his wife. He heard her slow, rhythmic breathing and felt himself fall in love with her all over again.

It took him a few minutes to figure out why he was so terrified and excited at the same time. And then he remembered. We're having a baby. He thought. The most precious gift that the natural world can bestow upon us has been handed to us. A brand new human being. A life. A person, a wonderful new person is going to come into our lives and bring love and joy and magic and wonder… and why can't I ever be this eloquent when I talk to anyone?

"Hiccup?" Astrid whispered, stirring slightly. "Let go of me."

"Why?"

"Just let go."

Hiccup let go of her body and his wife immediately jumped up, ran over to the window, and retched.

"Are you okay?" he asked, sitting up slightly.

"Hold my hair." She said, gripping the edge of the window with her one good hand.

He stood up and made his way to her. She retched again. He grabbed hold of her hair just as she finally expelled the contents of her stomach onto the grass below. She turned to face him, wiping her mouth with her hand.

"I'm sorry." she said, looking slightly embarrassed. "Not a very nice thing to wake up to, was it?"

"I've had worse." Hiccup gave her a lopsided smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Better, actually." Astrid replied. "Though I really want a drink of water."

"Say no more." he said, immediately grabbing the first skin of water he could find.

She drank it as though she hadn't had a drop to drink in days. His brows furrowed in concern.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked once she finally finished it.

She wiped her mouth again. "Yes, I'm sure."

"Okay… do you want something to eat?"

She shook her head. "No thanks. Not now. I'm still really tired."

Hiccup paused. His wife was definitely a morning person (while he was most decidedly an evening person) and she was usually wide awake within seconds of getting out of bed. Sensing his concern, Astrid waved her hand, as though trying to physically push aside his doubts.

"I'm fine, Hiccup. I'm just tired. And I don't feel too sick anymore." She assured him.

"Either way, we should go see a healer and…"

"No!" Astrid exclaimed, making her husband jump.

"Why not?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because I don't want anyone to know just yet." she replied. "I don't want anyone to make a fuss. You're going to be annoying enough."

Clearly whatever it was that made women so unpredictable during pregnancy was the reason for that admission, Hiccup reasoned.

"Well my dad already knows. And so do the twins." he reminded her. "And how long do you expect us to keep it a secret when it's going to get more obvious when…"

"Are you making a crack about my weight?" Astrid snapped suddenly.

Hiccup took a few steps back and tripped over their bed, landing on it with a thud. Astrid laughed maniacally.

"Oh this is going to be fun." she said once her laughter had subsided.

"Really? You're going to torment me?" he frowned.

Astrid nodded, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "Consider it my revenge."

"Revenge? You had a lot to do with this too!" Hiccup protested. "I just helped…"

"Yes you did but I'm the one who has to do all the work. And besides, it's fun!" she reached out a hand to help him up.

He stood up, grumbling the entire time. She chucked; this was going to be an exciting few months.

"You know, I do feel a bit better now." She said, walking toward the door to their bedroom. "I think I'm going to take my morning flight on Stormfly."

"No!" Hiccup shouted, rushing forward and blocking her from opening the door.

Astrid crossed her arms. "Hiccup, if you do not get out of my way, I will punch you in the face!"

Hiccup shook his head, a panicked expression on his face. "Astrid, be reasonable…"

"I am being reasonable; you're the one who is being ridiculous!" she retorted.

"I'm ridiculous?"

Astrid took some deep breaths. "Okay… you let me fly with a broken arm…"

"You ran away from me and didn't listen to my warnings…"

"…and nothing happened so why is this any different?"

The couple stared at each other for a few seconds. Hiccup was at a loss for words. He thought his wife would be a lot more careful than this.

"Because it's not just you." he said in a low voice. "You have to think about the baby too."

"So I have to give up flying now?" Astrid hissed back. "I don't think so!"

"Astrid, what if you fall off again? We could have lost the baby the first time!"

"But we didn't!"

"I don't want to take that chance." Hiccup sighed. "If you go flying and a storm sneaks up on you and what happened last time happens again and I'm not there to save you, I'm going to lose everything. We'll lose everything."

"So come with me." Astrid said, brightening up considerably.

"What?"

"We'll compromise. No flying unless we do it together. And that goes for you too. Our kid needs a father." she explained.

Hiccup considered this for a second. If it meant making his wife happy, he was willing to compromise. Plus he was frightened of her temper now that her emotions were about to become so unpredictable.

"All right. But Toothless and I always go flying at dusk. And you'll have to come along for that if I'm really going to give up flying without you." Hiccup agreed.

"And Stormfly and I always go flying at dawn. So you'll have to come along for that flight too." Astrid reminded him.

They were silent. Hiccup finally walked away from the door. He walked over and took Astrid's hand.

"You know, I think I'm going to like flying with you, Astrid Haddock." Hiccup winked at her.

"I'm just looking forward to getting rid of you." Astrid said and, without waiting for her husband to respond, opened the door and yanked him out of it.

They nearly tumbled over each other down the stairs and when they finally got to the pen with the dragons, both beasts eyed them with confusion.

"Come on, Stormfly." Astrid said, mounting her dragon. "We've got a guest this morning. And every morning for a few months. Sorry, girl."

The dragon gave Hiccup a disgruntled look before taking off. He placed his arms around his wife and leaned into her shoulder. Her hair smelled wonderful and the air in his face was very refreshing. Perhaps there was something to be said for riding at dawn instead of dusk. He was witnessing the birth of a new day. This thought made his heart leap for joy. He didn't think he was ready to be a father yet but... now he really was happy. Perhaps he had just needed to get used to the idea. Either way, he found that he loved his baby more than he ever thought he could love anyone. Not more than Astrid, of course, but the fact that it was their baby made him love her even more.

Astrid felt his hand move down to gently stroke her stomach. She smiled.

"Getting to know him?" she asked, turning her head and kissing his cheek.

"Oh yes. I can't wait to meet her." Hiccup held his wife closer. "I love you. Both of you."

Hiding Astrid's pregnancy proved to be very difficult that evening. Hiccup and Astrid had hardly sat down in the Great Hall when Gobber came bounding over, a tankard attached to his left arm.

"Ahh, just the happy couple I was hoping to see!" he exclaimed excitedly, waving the tankard around.

"Why's that?" asked Hiccup, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"I finally managed to make that wine from those berries you found on the other end of the island. My first two tries were horrible but this one is delicious. Come on then, drink up!" Gobber slammed a tankard in front of them filled to the brim with a purple substance.

"Oh… Gobber… wow, that looks… wow… but I don't think now is the right time to…"

"Nonsense, Hiccup! You and Astrid found those berries so it's only fitting that you be the first ones to try it. We've been waiting all evening." Gobber said, putting a tankard in front of Astrid as well.

Hiccup and Astrid exchanged a split second glance. There was no way they were going to get out of this unless they worked together. Hiccup took a big swig of the wine. To his immense surprise, it was rather tasty. At least he wasn't going to have to choke it down. Astrid pretended to take a dainty sip while Hiccup verbally praised the recipe, recommending that everyone try it now. When the rest of the Hooligans were distracted, she poured the wine into Hiccup's nearly empty tankard.

"That was close." Hiccup whispered to her.

"I know. Sorry about that." Astrid whispered back.

"Don't be sorry. It's my job to take care of you." he kissed her on the cheek.

At that moment, Gobber came bounding over to the couple. "Woah, Astrid, you certainly drank that down in a hurry! I'll get you some more!"

Gobber picked up Astrid's empty tankard before she could protest. She shared a wide eyed look with her husband. It wasn't over yet. As soon as Gobber put the full tankard in front of her, she pretended to take another sip. Hiccup gulped down the rest of the wine to make room for hers as well. The room was starting to go in and out of focus and his head was beginning to ache ever so slightly. Then, as soon as they were sure everyone was distracted once more, they switched tankards.

Gobber did not excel at reading facial expressions so he took Astrid's smile at her husband and Hiccup's look of immense discomfort as a signal that they needed more wine. When it was all over, Hiccup had drunk six full tankards of the stuff. The entire room spun in front of his eyes. He didn't think he could stand up. He wasn't even sure he could sit up. Was he sitting up? Perhaps the dull pain in the back of his head had something to do with the fact that the room lurched and now everyone was staring down at him.

"What in Odin's name is going on here?" came a distant voice.

A familiar face swam in front of his eyes. Hiccup squinted but he still couldn't figure out who had shouted. The yellow blur began to move and he heard a voice come out of it.

"Stoick!" it said. "Well you know, Gobber all wanted us to try this new wine and Hiccup here had a lot to drink what with… things…"

"Yes, Astrid sure finished hers in a hurry!" another blur said excitedly.

The familiar blur nodded its head. "Oh… oh! Yes well it's about time we got him home. Come on, Hiccup."

Hiccup felt hands underneath his shoulders and found himself standing upright. The entire room spun in front of his eyes. His foot and the odd silver contraption where his other foot should have been shook and he fell backwards onto a vast figure. Someone's hair tickled the back of his neck.

"Ismmmoving!" he slurred. "Make isssstop…"

"Let's just get you home, son."

Hiccup suddenly recognized the voice. "Dad!" he shouted very loudly. "You… you… hi, dad!"

"Hello, son. Come on, people are staring." Stoick pushed him out of the Great Hall and into the darkness outside.

Hiccup tripped all over his feet but still his father led him onwards. Suddenly, he remembered something vitally important.

"Dad! Dad! You hafta know… I'm gonna have a baby!" he said suddenly.

He heard a loud snort from some point behind them but he ignored it and the ensuing shouts of laughter. He was glad to have told his father this important news.

"Yes, son, you are. But right now you need rest." Stoick said, keeping a firm grip on his shoulders.

"Wait!" Hiccup stopped.

He felt very odd. For a few seconds, he simply stood there, rocking back and forth slightly. Suddenly, his entire body heaved and he heard a horrible splattering noise.

"Oh gross!" exclaimed Astrid.

Unsure of why Astrid had shouted (or why the front of his clothes were now wet and the inside of his mouth tasted foul), Hiccup continued to walk forward, steadied by Stoick.

That was the last Hiccup remembered until he woke up the next morning. Unfortunately, his wife would spend the next few months trying to forget what happened after that incident.

Hiccup had been silent for the next few minutes, meekly walking in the direction he was steered. As soon as they got to the house, he turned around to face his father. He then began to laugh.

"You look like a yak!" he choked between fits of giggles.

Stoick looked rather taken aback at this sudden observation. Astrid thought she saw the corners of his mouth twitch but he kept a straight face. Her own face was growing hot. She had only been married for two months and her husband was already humiliating her.

"I can stay if you like." Stoick offered as the two of them watched Hiccup stumble up to the front of the house.

"It's okay. I need to learn how to be a mom. I guess this will be good practice." Astrid shook her head. "I'm really sorry…"

Stoick put up a hand. "Don't be sorry. What Hiccup did for you was very noble. Stupid, yes, but noble."

Astrid nodded as she watched her husband trip over nothing and fall on his side. Stoick finally stomped away and she distinctly heard loud guffaws in the distance.

"Okay, Hiccup, come on in. We're going to get you all cleaned up." Astrid said, helping him up and leading him in through the door.

"Astrid! You're gonna have a baby!" Hiccup exclaimed as if he had just figured this out himself.

"Yes, Hiccup, I am." Astrid assured him, finally getting him into a back room where there was a giant tub.

She took the buckets of water they saved for bath time out of the cupboard and splashed them into the tub. She would have gotten Toothless or Stormfly to heat up the water but she thought it was probably best if it was cold this time. She then walked over to her husband, who was swaying back and forth. She took off his vomit soaked shirt in one swift movement, thankful for all the practice she had been getting in using her left hand.

"Ooh… Astrid! I didn't know you wanted to do that! Here? In the room with the tub?" Hiccup gave her his best attempt at a seductive grin.

Astrid grimaced. "Oh Hiccup, there is no way I would ever even consider doing that with you tonight." She said as she slid off his pants and pushed him into the tub.

"AHH! COLD!" Hiccup bellowed.

But try as he might, he couldn't manage to get himself out of the tub. Smiling in satisfaction, Astrid began to bathe him with her one good arm. She was vaguely reminded of the day she had walked in on him bathing when they had been teenagers and was highly amused to wonder what that Hiccup would have thought of this moment if he had known it was going to happen.

When the bathing was finished, Astrid wrapped Hiccup in a cloth and led him upstairs. He tripped twice and very nearly knocked her down but she remained patient with him. Once she had gotten him into bed, she took a deep breath. Being a mother was going to be very difficult.


	5. The Announcement

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

Hiccup pulled the covers over his aching head but the pounding wouldn't stop. A few seconds later, he realized he was being tormented by his own heartbeat. The sound of a bird chirping outside made him wince. He groaned but found that even the noise he made hurt his ears.

"Good morning, sleepyhead!" shouted a voice nearby.

"Astrid…" he whispered, trying to soothe this aching head. "Stop shouting."

"I'm not shouting." Astrid bellowed. "You're just hung over."

Hiccup moved the covers off his head and looked up at his wife. She was carrying a skin of water and looking very amused about something.

And then he remembered.

"Ohh _gods_!" he moaned.

"Ahh, it's coming back to you now? What do you remember?"

Hiccup thought hard about the previous night. "Everything was spinning. Pretty sure I threw up at one point but I barely remember anything. Oh wait… there was a yak…"

Astrid burst into peals of laughter. Hiccup winced again and threw the covers up to cover his ears.

"The yak was your father." Astrid explained. "He helped me get you back here."

"Oh gods, I didn't say that out loud, did I?" he asked, his eyes widening in horror.

"Yes you did, as a matter of fact." she replied. "Don't worry; he thought it was funny."

"I'm so sorry; that must have been terrible." Hiccup moaned.

"It gets worse. I took you home to give you a bath and you tried to seduce me." Astrid grinned in glee at the horrified expression on her husband's face.

"That would explain why I'm wearing nothing but a cloth." he said slowly. "Please tell me I passed out at some point."

"You did as soon as I got you up to bed. No harm done. Thanks for doing that for me." Astrid kissed him on the forehead and handed him the skin of water, which he drank in one gulp.

"Anything for you." He said, wiping his mouth with his hand. "But please don't make that necessary again."

Astrid chuckled. "I won't. I promise. In fact, I've changed my mind. I think the village should know about the baby. I don't want to see something like that happen again. Plus, you almost announced it to everyone. Good thing you waited until we got outside."

Hiccup took a deep breath. "Thank you, Astrid. But right now, all I want to do is sleep off this hangover."

She smiled. "I think I'll join you."

She shut the windows, leaving the room very dim, and climbed into bed next to him. His body was warm and soft. She dearly wanted to put her arm around him but her bandaged arm was still useless. Instead, she planted a kiss on his shoulder and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The newlyweds awoke late in the afternoon. Hiccup's head felt much better. He gently got out of bed so he wouldn't wake his sleeping wife.

He stood up for a moment and realized that he had no idea what he wanted to do. If he was going to tell the residents of Berk about the baby, he wanted Astrid to be there as well. Perhaps he could tell someone only _he_ knew well.

He smiled slightly as he left his bedroom and quietly tiptoed down the stairs. It didn't take him long to walk over to Gobber's workshop, where the Viking was sharpening a rather large sword. He looked up as Hiccup walked in through his front door, his face splitting into a large grin.

"Ahh Hiccup! You're looking much better than you were last night!" he exclaimed, slapping the young man on the back so hard he nearly fell over.

"Yes well… that was an interesting night for us all, I think." Hiccup said, averting his gaze.

"It's my fault. Shoulda figured you'd be a bit of a lightweight. Shouldn't have made you drink so much. Astrid though, she's got a high tolerance!" Gobber placed the sword in a pile with several other swords.

"About that… I'm not a lightweight. Well, I probably am but I'm not _that_ much of one." Hiccup explained. He looked up into the older man's eyes. "Astrid's going to have a baby."

Gobber didn't reply for a few seconds. In fact, he seemed momentarily stunned. Hiccup watched, waiting for him to move and feeling increasingly awkward.

"Well… that was fast." Gobber said at last. "Wish I'd have known that last night."

"Yeah we weren't going to tell anyone and then last night happened." Hiccup scratched the back of his head. "We want to make sure that doesn't happen again. Ever."

"Yes, you were quite entertaining." Gobber chuckled. "So… think you're ready for fatherhood?"

"Me? No… I mean not yet. I'm kind of hoping I will soon because I can't really go back now. The process is already started." Hiccup shrugged.

"Your father said the same thing." Gobber assured him. "And a couple'a days after you were born, he came back and told me he was wrong. He had no idea what to do. 'Course he might have said that because of the sleep derivation. Didn't sleep in weeks after you were born!"

"Oh… I see…" Hiccup said, trying to mask the horrified feeling creeping up on him. "I cried a lot?"

"Doesn't even begin to describe those first few months. I made the mistake of offering to take you for one night so your parents could sleep. We were _both_ crying by the end of it." Gobber said rather nonchalantly. "I guess I'll get working on making some diapers. Got any idea when the baby's going to be born?"

Hiccup shook his head. "I have no idea. I'm not really worrying about that right now. I just want to make Astrid happy…"

"Ach, good luck with that! Stoick was frightened of Valhallarama for months."

Hiccup put up a hand. "Well, as _edifying_ as this conversation has been, I really should get back to my wife." he said, hoping he didn't have a panic attack on the way back.

"Well congratulations!" Gobber said cheerfully.

"Yeah… thanks."

As he walked back to his house, Hiccup mulled over this new information. Perhaps it would be wise to get as much sleep as possible in the next few months. Just in case…

* * *

Astrid was awake when Hiccup returned to the house. He internally kicked himself for leaving her alone because she was frying a fish over the fire, probably out of spite more than anything else. The worst thing was, it looked and smelled delicious, unlike his horrible creation two days previously. She narrowed her eyes as she grinned at him, challenging him to complain. He wasn't going to take the bait.

"That looks great." he said, smiling back at her.

"Oh I know what you're thinking." Astrid shook her head. "You're not always going to be here to take care of me, you know."

"I know. I guess I just don't want to think about even spending one moment away from you." He walked up behind her and put his arms around her waist, placing a hand on her stomach.

"It's going to be a while before you can feel him." Astrid said as she pulled the perfectly cooked fish out of the fire.

"I know. I just want to be close to her." Hiccup whispered. "She's going to look just like you."

" _He's_ going to look just like me." Astrid corrected. "It's a boy. I can tell."

Hiccup took a deep breath. "Nope. It's a girl."

"It's definitely a boy. I'm his mother. I can feel it." Astrid said through a mouthful of fish.

"Well I can feel that it's a girl." he gently rubbed her stomach. "And she'd better not give you too much trouble."

"Don't worry, he won't. I won't let him." She fed her husband a bite of fish rather skillfully with her left hand.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see." Hiccup said, chewing on the fish thoughtfully. "But I still think it's a girl"

"And I still think it's a boy." Astrid shook her head. "We can't agree on anything, can we?"

"We're going to have to figure out how to argue in secret once our child is old enough to understand us." He chuckled. "She's never going to be bored, that's for sure."

"No he won't." Astrid said, finally turning around to face her husband. "Now, while we don't have a baby to take care of, I think we're going to have to make up for any lost time in the next few months."

"Oh really?" Hiccup whispered, his heart rate quickening.

Astrid gently kissed him, placing her hands in his rather messy hair. He grabbed her waist and pulled her closer. He thought it was probably his imagination but her stomach did feel a little less flat. But to say something like that would ruin the moment so he remained silent. He closed his eyes, taking in the smell of her hair and the softness of her lips. He never wanted this moment to end. There was a lot to plan but right now, for a few hours, it was just him and Astrid and their baby no one else. Not even the dragons. Their love for each other had made this wonderful little life and he couldn't stop himself from pulling her even closer, not caring that he was probably squishing her. She couldn't be close enough. He lowered his head and planted kisses on her cheek and then her neck. She took a few steps back, weak at the knees, and sat down on the couch behind them. He continued to kiss her neck, keeping his arms firmly around her. And then he gently pulled up her shirt to reveal her stomach and planted a kiss just under her navel. She kissed the top of his head and he felt as though waves of heat were radiating down his body, making his insides melt completely. He didn't know he could love anyone so much. And now he couldn't imagine _not_ loving his wife and his child as much as he loved them in that moment.

* * *

The couple had told Stoick to announce to the village that the baby was on the way in two days. They wanted to tell their closest friends first and hope that the word didn't spread before then. After a very wonderful night, they awoke and immediately called their friends together in the arena. The twins seemed to have completely forgotten that Astrid was pregnant, which was probably best considering they weren't exactly good at keeping secrets.

"Okay, well, for the next few months, possibly years, we're not going to be able to meet on a daily basis." Hiccup began, hoping to say everything before Snotlout remembered to glue his lips to Ruffnut's.

"Is that all you call us here to tell us?" Snotlout rolled his eyes. "Who cares?"

"We're not meeting because…" Astrid began. She looked at her husband, who nodded. "We're going to have a baby."

Dead silence. The entire group, even the twins, stared at the couple, wide eyed.

"Oh that's _wonderful_!" Fishlegs squealed.

His face reddened as everyone turned to look at him.

"I mean… congratulations." He mumbled, not making eye contact with anyone.

"But you're still not fat!" Tuffnut shouted, earning himself a punch in the face from Ruffnut.

"That was… really fast." Snotlout rolled his eyes. "Did you get started a little early?"

Hiccup's face went bright red. "That's none of your business!" he snapped as Astrid walked forward and punched Snotlout in the stomach, causing the burly Viking to fall to his knees and gasp for breath.

"What matters is Hiccup and I have to plan and get everything ready." Astrid said, blowing on her slightly sore knuckles. "And he won't let me fly by myself." She added, poking him in the ribs.

"It's a safety precaution!" Hiccup retorted.

"It's _paranoid_!" Astrid rolled her eyes.

"And I really don't care." Snotlout said, finally standing up. "Are we done?"

Hiccup sighed. "Yes, we're done."

Snotlout immediately grabbed Ruffnut and their lips became fused together. Tuffnut looked indignant and Fishlegs looked away with a strange expression on his face. Hiccup took Astrid's hand.

"Well, it's not much of a secret anymore." he whispered to her.

She shook her head. "No but I can't help feeling like this was a mistake."

Hiccup laughed. "Oh come on. Village full of Vikings there to support you… how bad could it be?"


	6. Secrets

Over the next month, Hiccup realized that he was woefully wrong about his assumption that a village full of supportive Vikings was a good idea. At first, it was nice. People were patting him on the back and congratulating him. Old women in particular rather liked to grab Astrid's stomach. She had nearly hit Elder Gothi; thankfully Hiccup had held her back. She was a lot more volatile now that the pregnancy symptoms were kicking in.

Astrid had been quite dismayed when her armored skirt had to be loosened the previous day. She had always prided herself on her slim, muscular build but now that the baby's presence was becoming a bit more obvious, she was irritated every time an article of clothing became tight. She complained that she was getting fat but truthfully, Hiccup couldn't even see the tiny bump unless she lifted up her shirt. Even so, he thought it was cute. He also realized that it was a mistake to voice this opinion.

"Why would you say that to me?" Astrid wailed, lowering her shirt.

"What? I-I didn't say anything…" Hiccup stammered.

"You think I'm ugly, don't you?" she shot back.

"Astrid, don't ridiculous. You look beautiful!"

"I look _huge_!"

He placed a hand on her shoulder. "It doesn't matter how much bigger you get. I'm always going to think you're beautiful."

Never had Astrid been so emotional. He thought she had been awfully emotional just after their wedding but that had been nothing, _nothing_ compared to this. She was always just about ready to explode and he was usually caught picking up the pieces. Just last week, she had very nearly knocked out Snotlout's front teeth for commenting on the weight she had gained. He had been ready to punch Snotlout's lights out himself but his wife had beaten him to it. Thank goodness. He would probably have lost a few teeth if _he_ had hit the bigger Viking.

Probably the most distressing thing about Astrid's pregnancy (other than her mood swings) was the fact that she never wanted to touch him anymore. She was so tired all of the time, she didn't even want to go on her morning rides on Stormfly anymore and after a few days of enduring his and Toothless' evening rides, she finally consented to let him ride his dragon by himself. But concern for her made him enjoy those rides quite a bit less and his Night Fury could tell. So for a while there was no dragon riding and the dragons seemed more depressed than ever. Then the previous week, Gustav's dragon had become injured and Hiccup decided to lend him Toothless and Stormfly with strict instructions to take them flying morning and evening (in exchange for a little bit of pocket money). The dragons seemed to be happier and the boy took very good care of them but they still missed their time with their own riders. But this didn't solve all of their problems as Astrid didn't want to even touch her husband anymore. Hiccup was beginning to feel neglected but he knew he had to suffer through it for her sake.

They suspected that their child had been conceived on their wedding night so Astrid was about three months pregnant when an odd invitation came their way. Stoick politely knocked on their front door at dusk.

"Hi, dad." Hiccup said, slightly surprised at this unannounced visitor.

"There's something going on at the Great Hall tonight. I want you and Astrid there in half an hour, all right?" Stoick asked, looking slightly uncomfortable for some reason.

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "Was that an order?"

"It was a strong suggestion." Stoick replied.

And with that, the older man stomped off. Hiccup turned around to look at his wife.

"Well that was strange." he said, sitting down next to her.

"Look, Hiccup, I don't want to go anywhere…"

Hiccup shook his head. "Neither do I but we should. We're going to have to do a lot of things we don't want to do when we're running everything."

"Don't remind me." Astrid said, resting her head on his lap. "We've got half an hour and it's a five minute walk. Wake me up in twenty minutes."'

Hiccup gently stroked her soft hair as she fell asleep almost instantly. He wondered just how much energy this baby was taking from her and hoped that she would be back to her old self sometime soon.

Thirty minutes later, Hiccup and Astrid arrived at the large double doors of the Great Hall. It was eerily silent.

"Maybe you misheard." Astrid whispered.

He shook his head. "Pretty sure I didn't."

He opened the door and the couple was suddenly bathed in light.

"SURPRISE!" shouted hundreds of voices all around them.

Hiccup and Astrid stood stock still, mouths agape and struck speechless, as what looked like the entire village had come to congratulate them on the baby. People of all ages crowded around them, shaking their hands and putting their hands all over Astrid's stomach. Astrid indignantly began to slap hands away as people grew closer. Gobber handed Hiccup a tankard of the wine but he shook his head and thrust it into Snotlout's hands. He was never going to drink again.

"Congratulations!" came a familiar voice to their right. But no, it couldn't be…

"Heather!" Astrid exclaimed gleefully, hugging her friend. "What are you doing here?"

Heather smiled and grasped Astrid's hands. "I came in this morning and then I heard about the baby. I was so surprised!"

"No one was more surprised than we were." Hiccup piped up, putting his arm around his wife.

"Oh I bet! Think you're ready for parenthood?" Heather asked.

"Definitely. I couldn't be more excited." he nodded and squeezed Astrid's shoulder.

Astrid gave him a small smile and extricated herself from his grip. "Come on, Hiccup, there's plenty of time for all that later. I think we're going to be here for a while."

Hiccup couldn't help but notice that Astrid's smile looked less than genuine but he shook off his uncertainty. He had to greet everyone who was crowding around him to congratulate him. He was ecstatic. Now that he was used to the idea, he beamed with pride every time someone mentioned his unborn child. He couldn't be happier.

Stoick finally stood up on the largest table and silenced the crowd.

"I know we're all very excited about this." he said, smiling widely. "But it's about time we gave our happy couple some space. Hiccup, Astrid, come on up."

Hiccup was beginning to feel a little uneasy as he strode forward and stood on the table next to his father. Astrid stood up next to him, awkwardly fidgeting with her shirt.

"Hiccup, I didn't think I could possibly be prouder of you the day you married Astrid. But now that I'm about to become a grandfather, I realize that I was wrong. This baby is going to make the village a much better place. I'm proud of you both." Stoick said in a lower voice that still carried to the far sides of the room. "Bring out the feast! Let's celebrate!"

Hiccup reddened slightly at the praise from his father. He took Astrid's hand as the two of them sat down in the middle seats, in plain view of the entire village. He thought Astrid's smile seemed awfully fixed but she was probably tired. He had to admit that he wasn't as enthusiastic about the attention after being bombarded with it but he was glad she was handling it well.

There was more than a feast. Gobber's new wine was such a hit, almost every man and a good number of women on Berk were slightly tipsy by the end of the night. Fortunately, no one was as drunk as Hiccup had been the previous month. They had all learned how potent it could be from him and didn't want a repeat of that incident.

Several people started giving them gifts. Many women made socks for the baby. Gobber gave them diapers. Many of the men gave them objects that were far too dangerous for a newborn or even a toddler. But the most interesting gifts were Fishlegs' and Stoick's.

"It took me two weeks but I made this for your baby." Fishlegs said, sheepishly handing over a beautifully knitted light blue outfit he had made.

It would definitely keep the baby warm all over with only two holes: one for the head and one to make it easier to change the baby's diapers. Hiccup and Astrid exchanged a look, both wondering when (and, more importantly, _how_ ) Fishlegs had become so good at knitting but decided not to ask.

"Thanks, Fishlegs." Hiccup said cheerfully, truly thankful for the gift.

Fishlegs beamed at them. A few minutes later, Stoick produced an old looking crib with a small mobile with hanging stars and one relatively new looking carved Night Fury. Hiccup was momentarily speechless.

"Your mother and I made that for you before you were born." Stoick explained, placing a hand on his son's shoulder. "Gobber and I made the Night Fury. We thought your baby should always have a dragon, even a little one."

Much to his embarrassment, Hiccup's eyes filled with tears. He hastily wiped them away as his father embraced him and then Astrid. He had no idea his father had kept this crib for all these years but he was so touched, he couldn't say a word. Astrid's mother, Lotus, stepped up and produced two outfits, one in dark blue and one in dark green.

"I thought these would work whether it's a boy or a girl." she said, kissing her daughter on the cheek. "But I made this as well, just in case it's a girl."

She pulled a knitted version of Astrid's armored skirt out of her pocket. Astrid gasped and gleefully took it, turning it over in her hands and taking in the detailed and accurate design.

"Mom, it's perfect. If it's a girl, she's going to wear this all the time." she gushed, throwing her arms around her mother.

"I'm so happy for you, Astrid." Lotus replied, hugging her daughter tightly.

Hiccup was a few feet away, watching them with a smile on his face. Suddenly, he was doused in freezing cold water.

"GAH!" he shouted, trying to jump away.

It was too late. He was soaked to the skin and the villagers were howling with laughter. Then he remembered.

The Hooligans had an old tradition in which every time a woman became pregnant, her husband's male friends would pour freezing cold water on his head. There was some sort of symbolism but it had been lost in the hundreds of years it had been practiced. Hiccup mentally kicked himself for forgetting about this particular tradition. He should have been more careful.

He turned around and, sure enough, Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs were standing just above him, holding a huge, empty barrel. He was vaguely reminded of the day he proposed to Astrid. One of the many things that had gone horribly wrong was that the twins had showed up at the most inopportune moment and poured water on his and Astrid's heads. Tuffnut seemed particularly gleeful to repeat this particular prank. Hiccup shivered but his face split into a mischievous grin.

"Thanks guys. You all deserve a big hug for keeping up that tradition!" he shouted, racing up the steps and throwing his arms around Snotlout.

He shook his head and cold water splashed onto Tuffnut and Fishlegs. They tried to dodge it but were still covered in freezing droplets anyway. Snotlout pushed Hiccup away, looking disgusted, and Hiccup immediately chased down Tuffnut and Fishlegs for a group hug. He could hear his father's booming laugh over the laughter of the villagers. Lotus gave him a blanket and led him to the fire to warm up while Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs followed, wanting to warm themselves up as well.

What Hiccup didn't notice was that Astrid had quietly slipped out during the ruckus. Heather, however, did notice this and followed her. She found the blonde Viking a few feet into the woods and was surprised to hear muffled sobs.

"Astrid… are you okay?" she called, not sure if she should intervene.

Astrid looked up and immediately started to brush away her tears. "I'm sorry. It's nothing. Go back to the party."

"I don't think so." said Heather, sitting down next to her friend. "What's going on?"

"I can't tell you." Astrid muttered. "I can't tell anyone."

Heather stared at the young woman. Her concern was growing as she saw several new tears slide out from under her eyelids. She put her arm around Astrid and gently stroked her shoulder.

"You can tell me anything." Heather whispered. "I promise, I won't tell anyone. Not even Hiccup, if you don't want me to."

"No… I can't… you'll think I'm a horrible person." Astrid wept, burying her face in Heather's shoulder.

"You're obviously forgetting who you're talking to." Heather squeezed Astrid's shoulder. "I'm not exactly the most innocent person in the world, remember?" She thought she heard Astrid chuckle weakly. "Just tell me what's going on."

There was a pause. They could hear the celebration ensuing inside but it was muffled. Astrid hoped that Hiccup wouldn't notice she was missing. And then, before she could stop herself, she said the very thing she had been thinking but had never been able to verbalize.

"I don't want this baby."

Heather's mouth dropped open but no sound came out. Astrid trembled but still Heather kept an arm around her.

"What?" she asked stupidly, hoping she hadn't heard Astrid correctly.

"I d-don't w-want this baby." Astrid repeated shakily, sobbing even harder now.

"Astrid…"

"I know w-what you're g-going to say!" Astrid suddenly shouted in a shrill voice. "I'm a t-terrible person and I should be ashamed of m-myself!"

"I wasn't going to say that." Heather said softly. "Why don't you want this baby?"

"It's r-ruining everything." Astrid wailed. "My b-body, my marriage… I didn't want k-kids until Hiccup and I had been m-married for a few years but before I w-was used to everything, this baby happened and I… I j-just don't want it."

"Astrid, you're going to be a great mom…"

"No I'm n-not! Hiccup and I aren't r-ready for this and I'm so s-scared this baby is going to m-mess up our marriage!" Astrid sniffed rather loudly.

Heather held her tighter. "Why can't you tell Hiccup?"

"Did you s-see him? He's so h-happy. He'd hate m-me if he knew." Astrid replied, trying to stem the flow of tears and finding herself unable to do so.

"I don't think he'll be upset if you're honest with him." Heather whispered.

"No!" Astrid snapped. "I'm not t-telling him. And you can't either. You p-promised!"

"Astrid…"

"Please d-don't tell him, Heather! He'll be c-crushed!" Astrid pleaded, staring at Heather unblinkingly.

"I… Astrid, please don't make me keep this from him."

"I'll t-tell him. But not n-now. Please, Heather…"

Heather finally nodded. "Okay I won't say anything. But please tell him soon."

Astrid nodded, finally wiping her tears away. "I just want to be alone for a minute. I'll come back in a few minutes. Just tell Hiccup I wasn't feeling well. It's not a lie; I'm definitely _not_ feeling well. Tell him not to worry; I just need a few minutes."

"Astrid…"

"You promised, Heather."

Heather sighed. "Fine. But only a few minutes."

Astrid nodded. She heard Heather's footsteps retreating. She leaned back against the trunk of a tree and slowly pulled up her shirt to reveal her stomach. Placing a hand on the tiny bump, she sighed.

"It's not your fault." she whispered to the baby. "I know that. But… am I a bad mother? Am I a bad person? I… I don't even love you yet. What's wrong with me?"

She wished her baby could say something, _anything_ , to make her feel better. She took a few deep breaths, steadily stroking her belly.

"Your dad is going to hate me. I kind of hate me." she continued. "Look, little guy, I want you. I do. Just not now."

"Astrid?"

Of _course_ Hiccup would follow her out there. She rolled her eyes.

"I'm right here." she called as she hastily pulled down her shirt.

"Are you okay? Heather says you weren't feeling well." Hiccup said, smiling now that he had found her looking better than he had expected.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Sorry, I just felt a little… nauseous. But I'm fine." Astrid assured him.

She stood up and kissed him on the cheek. Hiccup grinned.

"Do you want to go back to the party? We can go home if you want…"

She shook her head. "No, let's go back. We don't want to deprive the tribe of a chance to make fools of themselves for our sake."

He laughed. "I love you so much, Astrid." he said. He leaned in but suddenly stopped. "You didn't throw up, did you?"

She shook her head. He finished leaning in and gently kissed her. Slowly, he moved his hand down and stroked her belly.

"I can't wait." he whispered, kissing her on the forehead. "I've never been so excited in my life."

"Yeah." Astrid said, averting his gaze but smiling as widely as she could. "Me too."

He placed his arm around her shoulders and they slowly walked back to the Great Hall together. Somehow, lying to her husband made Astrid feel even worse. But there was no way she could tell him how she really felt. He would never understand.


	7. Daddy Lessons

At 16 weeks, Astrid's pregnancy was progressing nicely. Her outbursts were beginning to become few and far between. She was a lot less tired and more affectionate. Hiccup was glad for this; he was hoping his wife would actually want to touch him again and, in fact, he hadn't been expecting her to get this affectionate at all. It was almost like the first week after their wedding all over again.

The one drawback was that Astrid's belly had swollen to the point where she could no longer even pretend she wasn't pregnant. The day her armored skirt didn't fit anymore, she burst into tears and locked herself in her room with her husband on the outside.

"Come on, Astrid." Hiccup called, banging on the door. "It's perfectly natural. There's nothing to be ashamed of!"

"I'm the size of a yak!" Astrid wailed, slightly muffled by the door.

"No you're not. You're beautiful." he said gently, hoping she could hear him.

"I'm going to weigh more than Meatlug before this is over." she added, acting as though she hadn't heard a word he'd said.

He took a deep breath. He knew he had to be patient with her but he was beginning to get very frustrated. When he looked at his wife, he saw the miracle of life and it made her even more beautiful in his eyes. Somehow, she didn't seem to feel the same way. He supposed that was what made them different but he dearly wished he could make her see herself the way he saw her.

He slumped up against the door. "All right, stay in there. In fact… stay in there until you feel better, okay?"

He pounded down the stairs and spotted the armored skirt. He grabbed it and inspected it. Now where would she have gotten something like this?

Two hours later, Astrid was still locked away in their bedroom and Hiccup had decided to visit Gobber. He could probably help Astrid feel better.

"Well I can't take care of him." Gobber was saying as Hiccup came near to the shop. "He'll get himself killed here in the workshop. Too many sharp objects."

"Please, Gobber, we haven't had a night of peace in weeks." came a woman's desperate sounding voice.

"You said you'd look after him!" said a man Hiccup only vaguely recognized.

Hiccup finally came close enough to see a couple standing in front of Gobber's workshop. They were firmly gripping a small boy's arms and the boy squirmed uncomfortably.

"Well I've gotten far too busy. Say… how about Hiccup? He's going to be a father; I'm sure he'd love the practice."

Hiccup stopped dead in his tracks. "What?"

"Oh please, Hiccup? Would you mind watching Edgar for a few hours?" asked the woman, looking like she was on the verge of tears.

Hiccup looked down at the tiny little boy struggling against her grip. He looked to be no older than four years old. Surely Hiccup could handle a small child for a few hours. He smiled.

"I'd be happy to." He consented.

For a moment, he feared the woman really would burst into tears. "Oh bless you!" she exclaimed, pushing the little boy toward him.

Hiccup had to grab the boy's upper arm so Edgar wouldn't run away.

"Now you be a good boy, Edgar. Don't you give Mr. Hiccup any trouble, do you understand?" the woman asked, sternly staring at the boy.

Edgar said nothing, shutting his eyes tight so he wouldn't have to look at his mother.

"Answer your mother!" his father prodded.

"Yes!" the little boy said defiantly.

"Just give me a minute to talk to Gobber about something, okay?" Hiccup asked the couple, who consented and grabbed their small son once more.

After talking to Gobber for a few minutes about a new gift for his wife, Hiccup reemerged and took the small child. He wondered why the boy's parents looked so happy to be rid of their son, even for just a few hours.

A split second later, he knew exactly why Edgar's parents would want to be away from their child.

"Edgar!" he called as the boy immediately ran away as fast as he could. "Edgar, come back here!"

But Edgar acted as though he hadn't heard Hiccup as he continued to run toward the shore. Hiccup never thought that a child that small could run so fast. He finally caught the boy just before he dived into the cold water.

"What were you thinking?" he asked as he held the squirming child. "You could have drowned!"

But Edgar was hearing none of it. "I want to go swimming!" he shrieked.

"Well it's not time for swimming, Edgar. Say, how about we play a game!" Hiccup replied, trying to keep his voice steady.

"But I don't want to play a game! I want to go swimming!" Edgar whined and kicked Hiccup in the lower leg.

Unfortunately, Edgar's aim was better than he had expected. He had managed to kick the very mechanism that detached the prosthetic foot from the older Viking's stump. As Hiccup fell sideways, his prosthetic leg suddenly not supporting his weight, Edgar extricated himself from his arms and dived into the water. For one horrible moment, Hiccup feared the worst. But then the boy's head bobbed over the waves.

As it turned out, Edgar could swim. Hiccup supposed that his parents had taught him this skill quite early for exactly this reason. Hiccup, on the other hand, was not much of a swimmer and without his left foot, he had become even worse at it than he had been. But he had no choice and so, stripping off his shirt in one fluid motion, he dived in after the boy. Edgar swam away as fast as he could and it was all Hiccup could do to catch up. Praying to every god he could think of that his unborn child was a girl, he finally caught the boy and began to swim back.

"No!" the boy screamed. "I want to go swimming!"

"Well we're not going swimming right now!" Hiccup shouted back.

The young man howled in pain as the child sunk his teeth into his upper arm but firmly gripped him anyway. Edgar wailed and made every annoying noise he could think of but Hiccup determinedly ignored him. When they finally got back to land, Hiccup had a bit of a dilemma. He couldn't walk without his prosthetic foot but he couldn't let go of the child to put it back on. If they boy ran back into the sea, he couldn't even put the foot on because he didn't want to get it wet. Thankfully, the gods seemed to be listening to his prayers because Heather showed up at that exact moment.

"Heather!" Hiccup called, trying to act as though the squirming child was a perfectly normal thing to be carrying. "Would you mind helping me put my foot back on?"

Heather stared at the two of them for a second. They certainly looked ridiculous. Both were soaking wet. Hiccup was shirtless and his upper arm was bleeding but he seemed to be ignoring the pain. The boy was squirming and screaming bloody murder but Hiccup looked almost nonchalant about the ordeal. He did, however, fix his gaze on Heather and she could tell that his eyes were pleading with her to help.

"All right." she said at last, trying valiantly not to laugh. "Sit down."

Hiccup complied and now used both arms to control the child. Heather bent down, rolled up his pant leg, and reattached the prosthetic. He looked relieved when he finally stood up.

"So… what are you up to?" she asked in an attempt to make conversation.

The boy shrieked again but Hiccup ignored him. "Oh, just practicing fatherhood." He said loudly over Edgar's screams.

"How do you like it so far?" Heather asked, a smile finally emerging on her face.

Hiccup looked down at the child in his arms and sighed. "When this is over, I'm going to go apologize to my father. For everything."

Heather laughed. "I'm sure he'll appreciate it."

"And then I'm going to go home and have a nervous breakdown." Hiccup added.

"Sounds warranted. Well enjoy yourself until then." She grinned at the look of desperation on his face and walked away.

"All right, Edgar." Hiccup said once she had left them alone. "Do you want to get wet? Well let's get wet. Safely." he thought hard about what to do and then remembered another daddy skill he hadn't learned yet. "Let's give Toothless a bath. What do you say? Do you want to bathe a dragon?"

Edgar gave this some thought. "Well… can we ride him after the bath?"

Hiccup sighed. "Maybe if you're good and do exactly what I say."

The boy grimaced but Hiccup could tell that the gears were turning in his little head.

"Okay." he said, finally going limp.

After a few seconds, Hiccup decided that it was safe to allow the boy to walk next to him. He knew his grip on Edgar's shoulder was a little too hard but he wasn't about to risk the child running away again. Edgar seemed to be used to this.

When they reached the dragon, Hiccup told the boy to help him carry large buckets of water outside. Edgar looked a bit put out by this request but he really wanted to bathe the dragon so he complied. Toothless watched them carry out the buckets with confusion and it wasn't until Hiccup began to tie him to several posts that he struggled.

"All right, Edgar, soak him!" Hiccup called.

The little boy threw water at the gigantic black dragon. Toothless roared and struggled against his restraints. Hiccup grinned at the child's enthusiasm, hoping that his own child would love dragons as much as his or her parents. He brought out the soap.

"I think I'll scrub him, Edgar." Hiccup said, gently pushing the boy back. "I'm taller than you and Toothless is a little more familiar with me. But you can help me wash the soap off."

Edgar nodded and took a few steps back. The dragon continued to roar in indignation as Hiccup scrubbed his back and legs. He didn't go near Toothless' face because he had already lost one foot; he didn't want to lose a hand as well. The dragon shook his large, ebony body and water sprayed in all directions, soaking Hiccup and Edgar even farther and covering them with foam. Edgar giggled.

"Looks like we're all getting a bath today." Hiccup said, causing Edgar to giggle even more. "I think he's all cleaned off so come on, let's splash him again so we can let him go."

Astrid was watching this scene unfold from the bedroom window. She watched as her husband and the little boy splashed Toothless once more and then cut the ropes to free him. When the irritated dragon ran away, she watched Hiccup pretend to be a dragon and chase the child around the yard, roaring convincingly. Their laughter echoed off the walls of the room. She looked down at her protruding belly and smiled.

"You've got a really great dad." she said to her baby. "I just wish I could say the same for your mother." She sighed. "I can't tell him. I've tried. But… but he's so happy. Maybe I won't ever tell him."

A tear slipped down her cheek. She felt he belly, wishing she could feel her baby's movements. Maybe then she would feel differently.

"I want to want you, little guy." she whispered.

Hiccup led the child back to Gobber's workshop at dusk. Edgar's parents were arriving at the same time, looking surprised to find their son walking alongside his babysitter without having to be pushed. Edgar had forgotten about the promised ride which was probably for the best.

"He didn't give you any trouble, did he?" asked Edgar's mother, picking up the now docile child.

"We played dragon attack." the boy said gleefully. "And I won!"

Hiccup smiled. "I'll get you next time." He said to the child. "There was a little trouble at first but he just needed a firm hand and some activities. We had a good time."

"You had a good time? Oh that's wonderful. So you'll watch him again?" the mother asked.

Hiccup nodded. "I'd be happy to before the baby is born. Might not have time after that."

Edgar's father put a hand on his shoulder. "You're going to be a good father, Hiccup." he said quite seriously.

Hiccup beamed with pride as the couple walked away with their child in tow. He then turned back to Gobber's workshop.

"Ahh Hiccup! Finished it just in time." Gobber said, holding up the item Hiccup had requested.

"Thanks." said Hiccup. "Astrid's really going to appreciate this."

"You didn't tell him, did you?" Heather asked Astrid, giving her a sharp glare.

"I couldn't. Did you see him with that little boy today?"

Heather rolled her eyes. "I did but I'm sure your child won't be that bad."

"Maybe not but I just can't, okay? I'm not going to say a word." Astrid insisted, slamming her cup of water down.

"Suit yourself. But if you wait too long, Hiccup isn't going to be pleased." Heather refused to break her gaze and Astrid was beginning to find it intimidating.

"Maybe I won't ever tell him."

"Yeah, that won't backfire at all." Heather sighed. "Fine, you do what you want. But I think you're making a mistake."

"And I think it's none of your business." Astrid said, avoiding Heather's gaze.

"Astrid!" shouted Hiccup from just behind the front door.

Astrid put her head in her hands. "Great…"

Hiccup burst through the door, waving around an object excitedly. "Hi, Heather." He said to his friend. He turned back to his wife. "It took Gobber all day but… but I wanted you to have this."

He placed another armored skirt into Astrid's arms. This one had a buckle and several holes.

"It's adjustable. So you can always wear it." He said, beaming with pride at this brilliant idea.

"Oh Hiccup…"

"I mean, once you have the baby, you can go back to wearing your old skirt but I know how much it means to you and I really wanted to make sure you still had one." Hiccup continued.

"Hiccup, I…"

Heather turned away from Hiccup and gave Astrid a penetrating gaze.

"I… I love it. Thank you." Astrid said, getting up and putting her arms around her husband.

Hiccup thought he heard Heather make a sort of growling noise but he ignored it. Their friend immediately stood up and, without so much as a goodbye, walked out of the house.

"What's up with her?" he asked Astrid once they broke apart.

"It's nothing. She's just… frustrated with someone." Astrid replied.

Well, she thought, at least that wasn't a lie.


	8. A Threatening Reunion

"Hiccup! Hiccup, come over here quick!"

Hiccup nearly tripped over his own legs as he bolted over to his wife, his mind racing with unlikely and steadily more horrible possibilities with every step. Astrid was lying on her back staring at her protruding belly, her left hand rested on top of it and watching him with slight amusement.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked, completely out of breath.

"Nothing's wrong, it's just… here…" she grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach.

"Astrid, what is…" Hiccup began but suddenly stopped.

The belly moved in a strange sort of way. At first, he wondered what was going on and then, with a start, he realized that it wasn't Astrid that was making the movement. For the very first time, he was feeling his unborn child gently brushing against his fingers through his wife's skin. Completely breathless, he placed his other hand on top of her belly and leaned in, hoping to feel it once more. His wish was granted a few seconds later and for a while, he simply sat there, feeling the movements.

"Wow…" he breathed, smiling widely. "She's just like her mother."

"Oh really?" Astrid asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Yep. She likes to hit me." Hiccup winked at her. "Just wait until she's a teenager."

"I think I'll settle for waiting until he's born." Astrid said with a small smile.

Hiccup, feeling slightly unworthy of this moment, gently leaned in and caressed his wife's lips with his own. Astrid's eyes fluttered shut as she enjoyed the warmth of this moment. But it simply wasn't meant to be, for at that moment, she felt her baby give her an almost indignant kick. Hiccup felt it as well and, after kissing his wife once more, slowly lowered his head and kissed her belly.

"Don't think I've forgotten about you, little lady." Hiccup whispered to his child. "I can't wait to meet you."

"Hiccup…" Astrid said, finally sitting up and staring at him.

"Yes?"

Astrid took a deep breath. "I… well…"

"Hiccup!" came a loud voice from outside the house.

They looked at each other with a smirk and rolled their eyes.

"Dad, you can't just keep barging in like this…"

"No time for formalities, son." said Stoick, throwing open the door and completely ruining the moment. "We just spotted some Berserker ships sailing in. They should be here any minute."

"Already? They weren't supposed to get here for hours!" Hiccup groaned. "All right, all right, I'm going."

Hiccup had been dreading the renewal of the contract. He and Dagur had never been close and the Berserker chief had tried to kill him on many occasions. However, a peace treaty between the Hooligans and Berserkers had kept him from doing any real damage. Now it was time for the renewal and he feared Dagur would be a lot less open to signing the parchment than he had been years ago. Especially since he had made it clear he wanted Hiccup dead and his dragon's head hanging on his wall.

Astrid had offered to come along to support her husband. Her right arm was nearly healed so that if Dagur attacked, she could fight him but Hiccup told her repeatedly that it was a bad idea. At 22 weeks of pregnancy, her center of gravity was shifting so her fighting wouldn't be as good as before. Not to mention the danger she would pose to her baby. Astrid simply scowled when reminded that she wasn't allowed to do what she liked best.

"This is going to be a disaster." Hiccup said, awkwardly clasping his hands behind his back as he watched the Berserker ships approach.

"You're being too hard on yourself, son." said Stoick as he lifted his hand to place it on Hiccup's shoulder, changed his mind, and decided to use it to wave at the guests instead.

Hiccup watched the ships grow steadily closer, dreading the upcoming moments more with every millimeter closer they came. He saw the outline of Dagur the Deranged against horizon as he sailed in on the closest ship, standing erect with his hands on his hips and staring at Hiccup with a murderous glint in his eye. Hiccup was sorely tempted to back away but, as he was to become chief one day, he figured that it would have come across as cowardly.

There was an incredibly awkward silence as Hiccup stared at Dagur and the deranged chief stared back. Hiccup tried his best to give the taller man a small smile but felt as though it had come across as a grimace. Dagur seemed to think so too, for he stepped forward and produced a gigantic sword that would have stretched from Hiccup's hip to an inch above the top of his head. Despite not being very tall, Hiccup thought that it was a formidable weapon and it was making him feel quite queasy. He wondered if he was having sympathy nausea for Astrid. At least that would have been easier to explain away than to say he'd vomited in fear.

"Hiccup…" said Dagur in a sickly sweet voice. "My old friend…"

"Hi… Dagur." Hiccup said, hoping that he wouldn't have to talk too much for fear of suddenly being sick.

Dagur brought the sword dangerously close to Hiccup's face as he passed him. Hiccup finally recoiled, glad for that excuse at least. Dagur gave Stoick a very penetrating gaze, almost as if he was hoping to burn the man's skin with his eyes. Upon realizing that he did not possess this supernatural ability, he averted his gaze and half heartedly waved for his army to follow him.

"It has been brought to my attention that you have a different way of coping with our… dragon problem." Dagur said slowly as though talking to a toddler. "In light of that particular change, I believe the rules of our treaty should be rewritten."

Why was Dagur acting so formal? Hiccup had always thought he'd been dropped as a newborn (it gave him a firm resolve to make sure his child didn't suffer any similar injuries) but looking at him now, one might wonder why he was called deranged at all. He might as well have been called Dagur the Diplomatic.

"In light of the changes, yes, it would probably be best if several rules were rewritten." said Stoick, apparently having the same suspicions as his son if one read his facial expression correctly.

"Excellent." Dagur simpered, inspecting his sword with great interest. "It seems we have much to talk about. But I believe a tour is part of the original arrangement."

"A tour, yes. Well you had one the last time you were here…"

"Well it's always nice to keep up with the changes. Hiccup here can lead me around while you go and get everything ready." Dagur suddenly threw an arm around the smaller Viking, crushing his ribs.

Stoick gave his son a sympathetic look before turning back to Dagur. "If that would give you incentive to amend the treaty…"

"Oh yes. Lots of incentive." Dagur said, a wide smile that revealed a row of glimmering and, probably, sharp white teeth crossing over his features.

Hiccup nodded once when his father caught his eye. He had to learn how to deal with the slightly less peaceful visitors to Berk in the future and this would be good practice. If he wasn't impaled by that frightening looking sword first. Dagur roughly led Hiccup away from his army and Stoick and Hiccup felt as though his courage was leaving him with every step he took away from people who didn't want him dead.

"Well you've certainly changed since we last met." Hiccup said, trying his best to smile despite the churning feeling in his stomach.

"Oh that was just me being theatrical. My sister's been giving me lessons. Well now, Hiccup, I thought you'd have gotten rid of your father by now!" Dagur said, the glint of insanity coming back into his eyes.

Hiccup desperately wished Dagur would let him go soon. It was hard to breathe with the huge, muscled arm gripping his shoulders.

"Well… I thought as long as he's planning on retiring soon, I could just let him live until I took over…"

Dagur let out a loud, terrible sounding cackle. "My, my, you are funny, Hiccup! Did I ever tell you how funny you are? Hilarious!"

Hiccup couldn't figure out why Dagur was laughing but it seemed impolite (not to mention dangerous) not to laugh along with him. He managed to get out a breathless sounding chuckle before feeling like all the air had been suctioned out of his lungs. He gasped for breath as Dagur's vice-like grip tightened around his shoulders.

"What are you doing to my husband?" asked a horribly familiar voice.

Dagur and Hiccup turned around to find Astrid wearing a very loose shirt in a futile attempt to hide her pregnancy and a Gronckle-iron sword which she kept on a hilt in her belt.

Dagur was momentarily speechless. Then he burst out laughing, the sound echoing all around them.

"Hiccup? You married Hiccup?" his eyes flitted to the obvious baby belly. "Oh and got busy!" he added, reaching out and grabbing her stomach with one hand.

Astrid drew her sword and Dagur withdrew his hand, grinning widely. She opened her mouth but Hiccup was the first to speak.

"You touch her again and I will knock your front teeth out!" he shouted, throwing caution to the wind as he threatened a man almost twice his weight in muscle.

This only made Dagur laugh harder. "Back down, I wasn't going to do anything. At least… not here." The last two words were spoken slowly, in a low and threatening voice.

Hiccup and Astrid exchanged worried looks made a silent promise to each other that they weren't going to leave the island anytime soon.

"I still want that dragon's head on my wall, Hiccup. And I can give you a lot to…"

"You're not taking him." Hiccup interrupted. "No price. He's mine and that's final."

"I will have your Night Fury, Hiccup." Dagur narrowed his eyes as he gave the couple a terrifying smile. "And I suppose that treaty will just have to wait."

"Dagur, you have to…"

"No!" Dagur threw Hiccup at his wife, who caught him before he knocked her over. "I don't have to do anything I don't want to do. And maybe I don't want peace between our tribes. Maybe it's time for a little war."

Hiccup stood in front of Astrid, stretching out his arms in a vain attempt to protect her from the insane Viking in front of them. Dagur walked slowly toward them.

"I tried the whole peace thing and it didn't exactly work out." He said through his teeth. "I'll be back with the strength of ten thousand Berserker soldiers. And your Night Fury won't be able to stand a chance."

"We're not afraid of you." Hiccup said, glaring back at the Berserker chief and trying in vain to make himself seem a little taller.

"It's not us you should be afraid of." Dagur's smile widened and he stomped away from them, leaving them slightly shaken but unharmed.

"What did that mean?" Astrid asked her husband as she watched him walk away. "It's not them we should be afraid of?"

"I don't know. But Dagur has a plan. And whatever it is, it can't be good." Hiccup replied with a deep sigh. "We're going to have to round everyone up to patrol the island."

"I can help…"

"Absolutely not. You've got to stay home and take care of yourself." Hiccup insisted.

"Like Hel I am! If Berk is in danger, I'm going to fight!" Astrid exclaimed, sounding offended.

"You are carrying the next chief, Astrid!" Hiccup shouted. "That makes you one of the most important people here on Berk. And you are going to keep yourself hidden and well rested until that baby is born, do you understand?"

"I don't have to take this…"

She began to walk away but Hiccup grabbed her around the wrist. "Astrid, listen to me. This is important! If anything happened to that baby, we'd…"

"Fine!" Astrid bellowed, wrenching her wrist away from Hiccup's grasp. "Keep the baby safe. Got it."

Before Hiccup could say another word, she stomped away, muttering darkly to herself. Hiccup stood there, watching her go. He furrowed his brows and pursed his lips, deep in thought but unable to bring up any conclusions.

"What's gotten into her?" he whispered to himself.

He quickly shook his head. It was obviously something to do with being pregnant. Women were difficult enough to understand on their own but pregnant women were a different story entirely. Hiccup at least hoped he would be able to support her and make her feel like her contribution was important. It was the least he could do.

If only he could do more.


	9. The Monstrous Nightmare

Dagur was nothing if not completely unpredictable. And when no one had seen him for eight weeks following his refusal to renew the peace treaty, not to mention threaten the future chief, every day he did not act was less comforting. Hiccup found himself jumping at the smallest disturbances and he had become even more protective of Astrid than before.

Astrid herself went out of her way to avoid her husband. It wasn't just the secrets that weighed her down almost as much as her unborn child but Hiccup was becoming incredibly annoying. She was beginning to feel like she wasn't allowed to be by herself anymore. Of course, this thought made her want to be alone as much as possible. When she looked her husband in the eye, she felt a horrible surge of guilt for faking her happiness through this pregnancy, especially now that she had put on so much weight that no amount of loose clothing could possibly hide it. Her heart felt like it was on fire most of the time and she was too tired to carry any weapons except a few daggers.

She dearly wished that, by this time, she would want that little baby growing steadily inside of her body. Instead, with every kick, she winced and felt her heart fall a little more. She did _not_ want this and no amount of forcing herself to think about how wonderful it would be to hold her little baby in her arms would change her mind. It seemed as though she was somehow determined to resent this innocent child, a fact she had told a frustrated Heather a few days previously.

"Once this baby is born, you'll change your mind." Heather had said, leaning against a tree trunk and fixing her eyes on Astrid's belly, which was moving on its own.

"What if I don't?" Astrid placed a hand on her belly and felt every kick, desperately wishing she could be glad for her child's steadily beating heart. "I mean what if I have this baby and… and I just…"

"That's not going to happen." Heather assured her. "After everything you've gone through with this baby, you're going to take one look at him or her and just… I've heard the other women on Berk talk about it. You're going to be happier than you've ever been in your life."

"Yeah right." said Astrid, attempting to get to her feet and wincing in pain. "My ankles may never be the same size again."

"Small price to pay for motherhood, I guess." Heather shrugged.

"Except I don't _want_ to…"

"Yes, yes, I know." Heather frowned in an attempt to change the subject. "So I hear Ruffnut and Snotlout are not doing very well."

Astrid hadn't heard too much but Heather was correct; the once amorous couple seemed to be annoying each other. In fact, it was rare to see them in the same room anymore. Or even the same part of the island. Anyone who happened to catch them together, whether at the Great Hall or in the arena, would be able to tell that there had been some sort of disagreement and neither of them wanted to bring it up. Astrid had watched them with amusement over the last few weeks. Not being allowed to ride Stormfly anymore, it was the only entertainment left.

Over the last few weeks, Hiccup sat in on meetings with his father, figuring that he might as well learn as much as possible before his baby was born and he was too tired to do anything. Astrid had been too tired to sit in on these meeting as well but she had been so _bored_ lately that she decided to tag along. Hiccup thought it was rather awkward to walk in with his incredibly pregnant wife in tow but it was dangerous to tell Astrid not to do something nowadays. She sat down next to him at the head of the table, all eyes turning to look at her instead of her husband or father-in-law. She glared at the Vikings who dared to look her in the eye and was greeted with the sight of many heads abruptly turning away as though they hadn't been staring at her moments before. Deciding it was probably best to get a move on, Stoick began to speak.

"As you all know, we haven't heard anything from the Berserkers in two months. But we also know that they'll have a plan. And when they do, we need to be ready. We need to keep the patrols on the island going at all hours of the night." Stoick said in a booming voice that could be heard on the farthest corners of the room.

"I can help with the patrol." Astrid said, raising her hand slightly.

"Absolutely not." Hiccup grabbed her by the wrist and forced her hand back down. Had it not been in a cast a few days ago, Astrid would easily have been able to overpower his grip. "You're not over-exerting yourself. Not now."

"And so I have to sit around and wait for Dagur to attack? I don't think so!" Astrid snapped, finally wrenching her still tender wrist out of Hiccup's grasp.

"For the good of our baby, you have got to stay back. I meant what I said, if Dagur touches you again, I will knock his front teeth out. And I'm going to make sure he never…"

"I could easily take him without your help." Astrid glared at him.

If they had been paying attention to their surroundings, they would have noticed that Stoick's words were forgotten and all eyes had focused on them, watching them argue with some amount of fascination. Hiccup and Astrid had argued in public plenty of times but it was still an enjoyable spectacle.

"You shouldn't have to. I'm your husband; it's my job to…"

"I can take perfectly good care of myself!"

"You've got this baby to think about…"

"I can take him with or without the…"

"Just stay home and relax, Astrid! We've got this under control!"

This had done it. Astrid's face began to burn, she wouldn't be surprised if it was scarlet, and she felt so angry, she could barely speak. Trembling with fury, she placed her hand on Hiccup's shoulder and pressed down hard on it.

"Ow! Astrid, what are you doing?" Hiccup cried, trying vainly to pry her fingers loose.

"I'm standing up." Astrid replied, trying to use Hiccup as a crutch to get up. Her belly was incredibly heavy, making this a very difficult feat.

"What? Why?"

"I'm going to storm out of here." She grunted, her ankles in horrible pain as her weight was placed on them once more.

"Do you need any…"

"NO! I can do this myself."

"Ow! Astrid, you're hurting me!"

"Oh shut up and keep still!"

Hiccup winced as her fingernails dug into his shoulder. He hadn't realized she was so heavy. He tried to give her a gentle, apologetic look but it came across as a grimace as he was fairly certain her nails broke his skin.

"I don't have sit here and listen to how I have to sit around doing nothing. Thor, I hate this…" Astrid caught herself midsentence. Had she said the word she'd been about to say, the tone of the meeting would have changed dramatically.

She finally was able to support her own weight. She lifted her hand from Hiccup's shoulder and her husband gasped and gently massaged where she had dug into his skin. She was humiliated at how tired this simple act had made her. She was nearly out of breath and all she had done was stand up. As she stormed out of the Great Hall, muttering darkly to herself, all of the Vikings stared at her.

Hiccup placed his head in his hands. "I swear by Odin's plucked eye, she's worse than a Monstrous Nightmare!"

This diverted the other Vikings' attention. Hiccup heard a loud snicker from Snotlout and then blushed furiously as he realized how that had sounded. He covered his face as several other Vikings tittered at the pun.

"If that leaves this table, I am dead." Hiccup said through his hands, which only seemed to make everything worse.

* * *

"Stay home, Astrid. Rest and relax, Astrid. Don't over-exert yourself, Astrid. I swear I am going to smack some sense into that son of a…"

She stepped on a stick, which snapped in half with a surprisingly loud noise.

"…until he's got bruises on every inch of his body." she continued to mutter, not paying attention to her surroundings.

She felt disgusting and fat and heavy. Her emotions had been brimming to the surface for weeks and she was determined to stuff them down now. For once, she didn't feel like crying. She felt like lobbing her axe at a tree. Except she didn't have her axe because she was usually too tired to carry it. Though, to be fair, it wouldn't have helped much. Where was she? She didn't recognize this part of the forest, at least not now that it was dark outside. Feeling slightly timid, she began to look around, hoping she would recognize something that could take her home.

"Hello?" she asked no one in particular.

"Hello?" came a very confused voice to her left.

She spun around and was suddenly face-to-face with Fishlegs, who was walking beside Meatlug and carrying something he hastily hid behind his back. The look of false innocence on his face was far too much for Astrid to handle.

"What are you doing?" she asked with a smirk,

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" Fishlegs replied in a very high register. "How are you doing?"

"Why does everyone ask me that?" Astrid snapped so loudly, Fishlegs took a few steps back. "I'm _fine_! I'm fifty pounds heavier, my clothes are tight, and my heart feels like it's on fire all the time but I'm fine!"

Fishlegs took a few steps away from her, keeping his hands behind his back. Astrid raised an eyebrow at him.

"What have you got behind your back?" she asked, smirking at him.

"Nothing!" Fishlegs shouted. "Nothing; I have nothing behind my back, why would I… I mean what…" his shoulders slumped over. "Well if you really want to know…"

Astrid continued to stare at him, making him even more uncomfortable. Slowly, he moved his hands from behind his back. They were clasped around a large bouquet of yellow and white daisies. Astrid gasped in surprise. She didn't know what she had been expecting but it certainly wasn't that.

"Wow, Fishlegs, I'm flattered but…"

Fishlegs looked horrified. "They're not for _you_ , I mean you're all married and… with child and… not that you don't deserve flowers but…"

Astrid laughed. "Relax, Fishlegs. I was kidding."

Fishlegs seemed to deflate a bit, his cheeks turning slightly pink with embarrassment. He smiled.

"They're for Ruffnut. I know she and Snotlout aren't doing too well and… well, I mean she's so… you know… and Snotlout doesn't appreciate that. And I wanted her to know that I did. And she's allergic to blossoms so I thought she'd like these… I know it's stupid." he sheepishly stared into the flowers as though he was expecting Ruffnut to pop out of them any second.

"I don't think it's stupid. You've had a crush on her for as long as I can remember." Astrid said, crossing her arms and giving him a rather penetrating stare. "If you don't go for it, I will beat you over the head with a club."

Fishlegs recoiled slightly, unsure if she was kidding or not. "Actually, I mean, I really don't know if I should… what if she doesn't like them?"

Astrid took a deep breath and winced as she felt her baby kick her hard in the ribs. "You know why I married Hiccup?" she asked.

"Why?"

"Because even though he was so scared out of his wits and was afraid to disappoint me and everyone else, he still had the guts to take a chance. At everything. I was no exception." The baby kicked her again and she gently rubbed her belly, hoping he or she would stop. "You can't just shy away because you're scared. Take a chance. The worst she can say is no."

Fishlegs stared at the flowers once more, his eyebrows furrowed in determination. "Okay, I will. Thanks, Astrid."

He took a single flower out of his bouquet and handed it to her. She took it and slowly put it up to her belly. The flower's petals tickled her slightly and she wasn't altogether sure why she was doing this to begin with. Her baby couldn't smell the flower… what was she doing?

Fishlegs seemed to notice the rather wistful expression on her face.

"How are you really feeling?" he asked in a very gentle voice.

Astrid was incredibly irritated at herself for tearing up. ""Umm... I'm… I'm all right. Just... struggling."

Fishlegs took a step forward, reaching out his hand to comfort her and then realizing that he had no idea where to put it. He slowly lowered it to his side.

"Struggling how?"

"Just... with what I want," she sighed softly.

Fishlegs looked at her expression and posture, looking sadly at her stomach and it suddenly hit him. "You're not ready." She looked up in shock and after a short, surprisingly timid pause, she nodded. "And you don't know how to tell Hiccup," he finished quietly, flicking a spider off a flower.

She sighed again resolutely. "Yes..."

Fishlegs was silent for a minute and then he made eye contact. "It doesn't matter how you tell him, Astrid." He softly replied. "You just have to tell him."

"I know, but he's..." she paused. "He's just so excited and everyone knows it. I just don't want him to be... disappointed."

"Will he be more disappointed in the fact that you didn't tell him how you feel," Fishlegs gently countered. "Or with the fact that you are, in a way, lying to him?"

Astrid pursed her lips, properly chastised.

Fishlegs continued. "He loves you, Astrid. He loves you more than anything and I... I respect him for that. I look up to him for everything as my friend, but also my future chief." Astrid looked back up at him in surprise. "You have to tell him the truth. He deserves that much."

Astrid swallowed thickly and slowly exhaled with a nod. "You're right." She agreed. "I have to tell him..."

"Soon," Fishlegs raised his eyebrows. "You're going to give birth soon. You can't wait much longer." Astrid nodded again. "Well..." he looked off toward the direction of the village. "I think I better... better go find Ruff." He took a step toward her and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Good luck, Astrid."

She smiled lightly and wrapped her arms around his shoulders lightly in a small hug. "Thanks 'Legs. Now go get your girl."

Fishlegs nodded with a light blush and hurried off. Astrid did feel properly chastised as she watched him leave. She began to walk back to the village, following Fishlegs from behind so that she didn't get lost again.

As she emerged from the woods, she ran into Hiccup, who apparently had gone looking for her. He took one look at her expression and immediately felt a bit uneasy.

"What's wrong?"

She wanted so badly to say it. To tell him what she just told Fishlegs moments ago. To be open and honest with him again... But she couldn't face the disappointment in those olive green eyes. Not yet.

So instead, she faked a tired smile and nodded, "Yeah.. just tired."

Hiccup gave her a lopsided smile and held out his hand. "Well let's go home then."

And as they walked back to the village hand-in-hand, Astrid couldn't help but feel like she was betraying him little by little.

* * *

The next day, Hiccup called the usual group together in the arena, feeling like he needed to teach them something (or at least find out how much they had remembered and, knowing the twins, it probably wouldn't be much). Astrid insisted on coming with him, despite his attempts to get her to stay home.

"I know it's been a long time since we've met." said Hiccup, standing in front of Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs, and Snotlout. "And I wanted to make sure you all remembered everything I've taught you."

"Oh gods, Hiccup, do you have to?" Snotlout shouted, leaning against his dragon and crossing his arms.

"Do I have to what?" Hiccup asked, genuinely confused.

"You never teach us anything new, it's always reviewing stuff we already know? Why do I bother to show up? It's so _boring_!"

Tuffnut nodded. "It really is boring. I'm going home."

"Yeah me too." said Ruffnut, slowly leading their dragon out of the arena.

"Oh come on! It's not boring! I'll… I'll make a game out of it!" Hiccup called after them.

Suddenly, Astrid gasped and clutched her stomach. "Hiccup!" she cried. "Oh gods, Hiccup! It's started!" she began to take rapid breaths.

Never had there been this much chaos in the arena, and this was counting every dragon training and dragon killing exercise that had ever gone on in there. The twins ran into each other in their panic. Fishlegs began hyperventilating. Snotlout fell against his dragon, his feet unable to support him anymore. Hiccup tripped over his feet and fell on his face in his attempt to run to his wife. When he finally got himself up, he slid over to her on his knees and put his hands under her skirt.

"Hiccup! Hiccup, it really hurts!" Astrid screamed, breathing in short gasps.

"It's okay! It's going to be okay!" Hiccup cried, keeping his hands under her skirt. "Fishlegs, you're the smart one! What am I supposed to do?"

"What? Me? No! I mean… I… I… I know about dragons! She's not about to lay an egg!" Fishlegs wailed, covering his eyes. "Breathe! Just breathe!"

Hiccup began to gasp loudly.

"Not you, Hiccup!" Fishlegs shouted. "Umm… I think I read something about… no, that won't… oh gods!"

At that moment, Barf and Belch, who were thoroughly confused by the whole scene unfolding in front of them, shot fire at Tuffnut, who shouted when his hair ignited. He threw himself on the ground and rolled, patting his hair and finally extinguishing it. Ruffnut began to laugh at him but another cry from Astrid quickly silenced her.

"What in Thor's name is going on?" came a booming voice from the entrance.

They all looked up to see Stoick standing there and taking in the abject chaos in front of them. Suddenly, the sight of Astrid breathing heavily, both hands on her belly, and Hiccup underneath her with his hands outstretched clued him in as to the nature of the pandemonium in front of them.

"Odin almighty!" Stoick gasped. "All right, everyone, calm down! We need to get her to a healer!"

"Healer! Right! Come on, Astrid!" Hiccup stood up and grabbed his wife around the shoulders.

Suddenly, Astrid burst out laughing. For a moment, there was silence as her laughter echoed off the walls of the arena. Everyone stared at her, wide eyed and mouths agape.

"Not so boring now, is it?" she guffawed, wiping tears of mirth out of her eyes.

Stoick found his voice first. "You mean… you're not…"

Astrid shook her head. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to get you involved but… oh gods, you should have seen your faces!"

Stoick let out a low, booming laugh. Hiccup fell over, clutching his heart and panting heavily. Astrid had to sit down to keep herself from toppling over with laughter.

Ruffnut saw the humor in the situation and began to chuckle nervously. "You know, that's not how you deliver a baby." she said to Hiccup. All eyes turned to her. She shrugged. "What? I delivered a baby once. It was cool. There was a lot of blood."

This didn't seem to assure Hiccup any more. He slowly sat up and stared at his cackling wife who had tears streaming down her face.

"Don't you _ever_ do that again!" he gasped, still clutching his heart.

"I can't breathe!" Astrid guffawed. "I can't… your face… ahhhh I love you, Hiccup!"

And, for the first time, she began to be kind of glad she was having this baby. But she knew the feeling wouldn't last. She looked at her husband, whose eyes were still wide with terror, and felt the familiar pang of guilt.

But she couldn't face that disappointment. Not yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I am aware that Astrid is treating her husband horribly. Everyone is being dishonest here. As this isn't my favorite installment of my series, I can understand any frustration you may have and ask only that you bear with me as I set up the story some more.
> 
> Don't forget to review!
> 
> ~KateMarie999


	10. By Any Other Name

Astrid couldn't sleep.

For some reason, her baby decided that it was about time to stretch his or her little muscles hours before the sun came up. She awoke in the early hours in the morning with an exceptionally full bladder and the bizarre sensation that could be best described as her baby's decision to beat her insides as hard as he or she could. It wasn't the first morning she had felt this way but this one was, for some reason, particularly frustrating.

If her ankles could make noise, they'd be screaming with pain when Astrid slowly placed her weight on them. They had swollen to nearly twice their normal size in the past few months and each step had become more painful with every pound she put on. She made her way to the outhouse to take care of the bladder situation and then, when she was faced with climbing the stairs again to get to her bedroom, she faltered. She took a few deep breaths. Before she was pregnant, she could have taken the steps three at a time and not have even been winded when she got to the top. Now Hiccup had to help her up most nights. But she wasn't about to shout up the stairs to get her husband. No, she was going to find somewhere else to sleep. Her baby kicked her hard in the ribs. Okay maybe she wouldn't be sleeping for a while.

She turned around and came face to face with Stormfly, who was staring at her with big, sad eyes.

"I'm sorry, girl." she whispered to the dragon, gently stroking her chin. "This baby's changing everything."

The dragon crooned sympathetically. She began to gently nudge her human, begging her to go for a ride.

"I can't." Astrid said sadly, wincing as the baby began to do some sort of wiggle, probably becoming cramped now that he or she had gotten so big.

Stormfly continued to nudge her, her noises growing louder. Then, suddenly, Astrid smiled.

"I can't fly you but we can go riding. Would that be okay?" she whispered.

The Nadder seemed delighted at this prospect and happily lowered herself so that Astrid could clumsily climb onto her back. Astrid's ankles seemed to sigh in relief once her weight was now on the dragon's back instead of them. Stormfly slowly trotted out of the front door and into the world outside. As soon as Astrid took a deep breath, clearing her sinuses and taking in the fresh air, she became very frustrated. If only they could fly. The last time she had flown, they had only gotten twenty feet into the air before Hiccup spotted them and bellowed until he was hoarse about endangering their baby. That had been about 11 weeks ago. She'd barely had a bump then but now it seemed to envelop her whole midsection. Fortunately for her, the rhythmic movements of the dragon seemed to lull the baby to sleep.

"Astrid?"

She hadn't realized how far Stormfly had taken them until she heard the all too familiar voice from just behind her. Stoick the Vast was, for some reason, taking a walk in the dark. They stared at each other for a few seconds, both wondering what the other was doing out at this hour.

"I wasn't flying." Astrid said defensively, her brows furrowed. "Just wanted to get off my feet."

Stoick's eyes flitted to her swollen ankles, which weren't in her usual boots, and nodded. "Understandable. I'm not going to get on your case."

Astrid smiled, feeling slightly relieved that Stoick and Hiccup had such different personalities. Her husband would probably have found some way to make her feel guilty about riding her dragon and then he would likely have forced her to lie down while he nearly killed himself trying to make her something to eat or do some chore that didn't even need to be done.

"Do you mind if I walk with you?" Stoick asked a moment later. "I'm just on my way to Gobber's workshop. Can you keep a secret?"

He never could figure out why she chuckled in response to this question. "Oh I can keep a secret."

"Right… well with everything going on, the academy hasn't been running as much as it was. I saw the last lesson." Stoick let out a bark of laughter. "I still can't keep a straight face at the image of him reaching out and trying to catch the baby. I really should have taught that boy more about the birds and the bees."

Astrid chortled as she remembered that moment. It was something she would never let her husband live down. The laughter did a wonderful job of diffusing the tension.

"I've taken the liberty of putting all of his notes into a new Dragon Book." Stoick said as they reached the door to Gobber's workshop. "After everything I'd put him through as a kid, I thought it was the least I could do. Plus that baby can have a better reference book when he grows up and wants his own dragon."

As Stoick opened the door, Astrid realized how long it had been since she had set foot in Gobber's workshop. Either Stoick or Gobber had completely rearranged everything so that it saved more space. A drawer next to the desk was stuffed with papers and she smiled as Stoick pulled it open.

"Haven't been working on it long." He said as he pulled out handfuls of papers. "Hiccup's been very meticulous. It's going to take ages."

She thought she recognized the scribbles she'd seen him make when he was fifteen years old. The notebook he'd carried when he was first observing Toothless lay at the top of the stack of papers. Goodness, it had been a long time since she had seen that. His handwriting hadn't changed much over the years but his drawing had gotten quite a bit better. His simplistic sketch of Toothless (with the smudged out left tail fin) was nothing compared to the detailed drawings he would make of his dragon now. Then again, it was supposed to be just a simple sketch. She wondered if her now docile baby would inherit that gift.

They were silent for a while as Stoick finally pulled out the binding he had intended to use for the new book. The book was going to be enormous but her father-in-law had only filled out two pages so far.

"I'm trying to finish up the section on the Gronckle. Both Hiccup and Fishlegs took dozens of pages of notes on them so I'm going to be here a while." He looked up at Astrid, who was staring pointedly at the wall behind him. He didn't like talking about feelings but she was already having them so it was probably best to address them. "Something on your mind?"

Astrid's eyes snapped back to him. "Oh… well yes. No. Not really. Just a question."

Turning back to his notes, Stoick gestured to her. "Ask away."

She took a deep breath. Moment of truth. "Do you think Hiccup is ready to be a dad?"

He let out a low, booming laugh that reverberated around the room. She wasn't sure what to make of this but remained silent, waiting for him to finish.

"I'm not laughing at you." He said at last, putting his chin on his left fist as he began to write out a few notes on the book. "It's just… no one is _ready_ to be a parent. It happens. And then you make do with what life throws at you." He looked up at her and was surprised to the look of terror on her face. "No, Astrid, Hiccup is not ready to be a father. He's impetuous, over-protective, emotional, and a tiny bit irresponsible."

Astrid was shocked to hear her father-in-law list out Hiccup's faults so matter-of-factly. Stoick smiled at the sight of her suddenly eyebrows rising far above her eyes.

"But the only way to break him out of those behaviors is to give him someone helpless who completely depends on him for everything. Who looks up to him and imitates him. Being a father is going to change him for the better." he turned back to the book. "He certainly changed me."

There was a long pause as Astrid mulled over this information. And then, just as she felt the baby squirm a little bit, she looked up again.

"Am I ready to be a mother?"

Stoick smiled and looked up at her. "I think you know the answer to that question."

* * *

Astrid managed to return home before sunrise and was even able to get a few hours of sleep on the couch before Hiccup came downstairs in a panic.

"Ast- oh there you are!" he sighed in relief. "I thought something happened."

Astrid rolled her eyes. "I had to get up and then I didn't want to go up the stairs again."

"You should have called for…"

"Absolutely not, I can't have you bailing me out of everything."

They stared at each other for a few more minutes, Astrid narrowing her eyes into what she knew was a very intimidating glare. And then, without having to ask, she knew he had cracked.

Hiccup blinked and swiftly shook his head. "Okay, okay. Are you hungry?"

"I'm _always_ hungry."

With a small smile, Hiccup turned toward his now gurgling dragon. "I'm not forgetting about you, Toothless." He said as he pulled a fish out of a barrel.

Toothless' teeth came out as he caught the fish in midair.

"You know, you're not even toothless and I still can't imagine calling you anything else." Hiccup said affectionately. Suddenly his eyes widened in horror. "Astrid!" he cried, making his wife jump. "We haven't named the baby!"

"Okay." Astrid said, rolling her eyes again. "If it's a boy, we'll name him Hiccup."

He looked rather indignant. "I am not naming my son Hiccup!"

"Oh why not?"

"Because it's a terrible name!"

"It's _your_ name!"

"That's how I know it's terrible!"

Astrid winced as she felt her baby kick her once again. Hiccup gently placed his hands on her belly and felt the baby's movements. He knew his impatience couldn't possibly rival Astrid's, who was beginning to look very uncomfortable, but he wanted to meet his child very badly. The longing was beginning to make him feel a physical ache in his chest. Just a few more weeks and his baby girl would be in his arms. Well technically it could be a boy but… no. It was a girl. He knew it was a girl.

"How about Stoick? We could name him after my father." Hiccup suggested, half hoping Astrid would shoot him down.

Sure enough. "Gods, no. Nothing against your dad but I do not want my son splitting rocks in two with his skull."

Hiccup chuckled. "Me neither. So I guess Gobber is off the table."

She nodded as they both felt the baby kick again. He gently brushed his lips against her belly. His heart was racing. He suspected it had been beating a little faster than usual ever since he had discovered he was a father but with the due date approaching, it was beginning to drum uncomfortably against his chest.

"Sven?" she suggested after a few minutes. "I think that's a nice name."

He considered this for a few seconds. "No. We already know someone named Sven. I don't want to confuse anyone."

Astrid furrowed her brow. "Who died recently?"

Hiccup raised an eyebrow at her. "Well that's lovely. Steal names from the dead. I'm sure he'll love that."

She rolled her eyes. "At least he won't be confused with anyone else. At least not in the land of the living."

He shook his head. "It seems a bit morbid to me, that's all. Besides, as I keep telling you, it's a girl."

"And I keep telling you that you can't possibly know that. I, on the other hand, am around him all the time and I can tell it's a boy." She smiled and shifted positions, hoping that her baby's weight wouldn't be as uncomfortable if she lay down on her side.

Hiccup lowered himself to his knees so that he could look his wife in the eyes. "Well humor me. What if it's a girl? What would we name her?"

"I don't know. How about Amanda?"

Hiccup gave her a long stare. "Is that just a nonsense word? That doesn't sound like a name to me."

She grinned. "I can come up with more nonsense words for you. We could name her Emily."

"Emily…" Hiccup had a bit of trouble saying that odd word out loud. "It does sound feminine. I've got one! Let's name her Lilith."

Astrid laughed. "Gods, that sounds silly. Can you imagine her going out in public with a name like that? Hmm… we could name her Beatrice."

"Beatrice? Maybe we could call her Trissy. She couldn't possibly get made fun of with a name like that. Okay let's see… how about Ashby?" Hiccup began to giggle uncontrollably.

"Astrid and Ashby… sounds like people would stumble over that." Astrid chuckled. "I've got another one. We could name her Kellie."

Hiccup looked thoughtful about that one. "It actually sounds like of nice. But I don't think so. Obviously the best name for her would be Saphira!"

"Sounds like sapphire. We better hope she has my eyes!" Astrid placed her hand on her belly and felt the baby kick. "I don't think she likes that. We could name her Ally."

"I kind of like Ally. Sounds weird but it has a nice ring to it. How about Haley?" he suggested.

"Sounds like hay leaves. And hay doesn't have leaves. Okay, another nonsense name… hmm… Megs?"

Hiccup laughed out loud at this. "Oh Astrid, I love you so much!" he guffawed, kissing her gently on the lips. "But maybe we should focus a little more on a name we'll actually use."

"Well then… Samantha."

"Astrid…"

"And if it's a boy, we could name him Nathan!"

"Can we be serious for a second?" Hiccup asked, still grinning at the silly words they were bouncing back and forth. "What if we have this baby and we don't have a name? That would be pretty embarrassing."

Astrid took a deep breath. "Hiccup, I really don't care what we name this baby."

"Why…"

"Because he's going to be loved. That's what matters."

As Hiccup leaned down to kiss her, he thought he saw her eyes flicker with something unreadable. But then again, maybe it was a trick of the light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When this was originally posted, the names listed were names of people following the story. Unfortunately, no one figured that out. Oh well! We won't be going with these names anyway!


	11. False Labor

It wasn't until late in the evening that Hiccup remembered that he had been married for exactly eight months. For a moment, he was deliriously happy. And then he realized that after Astrid had discovered she was pregnant, the marriage he had been looking forward to his entire life was built on the baby and not so much on his relationship with his wife. Thirty-two weeks he had been married and he had only spent eight of them enjoying his married life with nothing coming between him and Astrid. Now, even when they tried to hug or kiss, he would feel the baby kick him in the stomach as he embraced the love of his life. And for weeks, the sensation had made him simultaneously happy and terrified. Now he was annoyed with himself for letting their child distract him from his wife.

If he didn't stop this behavior, he might as well be saying he thought that it was okay to ignore his beloved wife for their child. Well that wasn't right, he thought, putting down the sword he was sharpening. He had six hours until midnight to make it right. For anyone else, this would probably have been a huge task. For Hiccup, it was monumental.

Placing the sword in the pile of other sharpened swords, he sat down on the closest chair in Gobber's workshop and placed his head on his chin. This was going to take some serious thought. What would Astrid want to do on their anniversary that would take only an hour or so to pull off?

Flying. That was the first thing that came into his mind. But with Astrid approaching her due date, that was probably out of the question. What else did she like doing? Fighting. Again, out of the question. And that just about summed up her favorite things.

And then he remembered their first argument. Well it wasn't extravagant but maybe… Hiccup smiled. Okay it wasn't going to make Astrid as happy as going on a romantic flight but perhaps it would brighten her spirits.

* * *

Astrid had never been lazier. At first, she insisted on doing everything she had done before despite her irritating symptoms. Now that she was heavier than she'd ever been in her life, she was too tired and sore to do very much. This inactivity was beginning to make her feel trapped inside of her own body and she looked forward to getting rid of this baby as soon as possible. She also dreaded it horribly. What if she didn't… no. She wasn't going to think about that.

It took a lot longer to get everywhere on foot. It had taken three days of consistent disobedience to change Hiccup's mind about letting her ride on top of her dragon rather than walk around (it was as though he didn't trust her) but he finally stopped complaining when he saw his wife climb onto her dragon's back. Stormfly was in much better spirits now that her human needed her again. She hardly noticed the weight difference.

A strange smell met Astrid's nostrils when she rode her dragon back to her house. She hated her sensitivity to scents now but she suspected that she would have noticed this one in particular whether or not she was in this condition. It was pleasant… potent but pleasant. Had Hiccup asked someone to do some sort of fancy cooking? If he had, that would be a nice surprise. But why would he…

Astrid smacked herself on the forehead. Of course. How had she forgotten? It was their eight month anniversary and she had been so preoccupied with her baby and her swollen ankles to remember. And either Hiccup had remembered or he was just being nice for no reason. Well… now she had no way of knowing for sure unless she walked into her house. And with the way she was feeling, she didn't want any extra attention.

The dragon lowered herself close to the ground so that Astrid could slide off her back. Astrid felt a sharp pain as she placed her weight back on her swollen ankles. She pulled open the door and gasped.

The only light in the room came from two candles on a small table. Hiccup was scooping delicious looking food onto two plates set across from each other. When he saw her at the door, he smiled and placed the bowl on the table.

"Happy eight month anniversary, Astrid." He said, walking over to his wife and taking her hand in his.

"What's this?" was all Astrid could ask, feeling slightly breathless.

She was amused to see Hiccup reach up with his other hand and scratch the back of his head. Some things never changed.

"Well with all this stuff with the baby, I realized I don't really spend much time thinking about you or talking to you without thinking or talking about the baby. And we've been married for eight months but it's only been just us for eight weeks. And now there's not a lot of time left until the baby comes so… maybe we can just have an evening where we pretend there is no baby for a few hours." he explained.

Astrid felt the baby kick her in the ribs. "I'm not sure I can pretend that, Hiccup." His face fell. "But I'll do my best. I'm really glad you did this."

He gently reached down and kissed her on the cheek. "Anything for you."

To her great embarrassment, she felt herself overwhelmed with emotion. Once her husband turned away from her to pull out her chair, she blinked back a few tears. This was one of the many things she adored about Hiccup. His simple yet wildly passionate love for her. It was both easy to understand and harder to comprehend than the most complicated puzzle. Every time she looked at him, she felt her baby move inside of her and she suspected it was because her heart beat a little bit faster.

She slowly lowered herself down on the chair, knowing full well that she would need help getting back up. Hiccup gently scooted it forward and then sat down across from her. She looked down and was amused to notice that he had put more food on her plate than his.

"This is wonderful." She said, immediately picking up her fork and digging into the delicious meal in front of her. "How did you pull it off?"

"It took a lot of practice. A few burns and not just on the food." He held up his right hand, which had a bandage on it. "Never touch a pan after it's been in the fire."

Astrid laughed. "I could have told you that."

The food was better than she could have predicted. She wondered how many times Hiccup had to cook it before he got it right. If the empty baskets of ingredients were any clue, it had taken him a while to perfect the recipe. If he hadn't worked so hard, she might have been slightly annoyed that he'd ruined so much food but he had done this for her. And she was very grateful.

As she began to spoon more food onto her plate, she felt a tightening in her belly along with a dull pain. She winced, hoping against hope that her husband wouldn't notice.

He noticed. "You okay?"

Astrid smiled and nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. Just a bit of discomfort. But we're not talking about that tonight."

She shouldn't have said anything. "What kind of discomfort?"

She glared at her husband. "Nothing I can't handle, Hiccup. Now don't say one more word about it."

But she knew, as she turned back to her food, that the night was ruined. She loved Hiccup more than anyone else but she also knew him extremely well. And he wouldn't be happy unless he was certain she was okay. She could feel his penetrating gaze on her forehead and the sudden pain in her belly didn't help things at all.

Unfortunately for her, he knew her as well as she knew him. "Maybe we should get you to a healer if you're feeling pains…"

Astrid's head snapped up. "Drop it, Hiccup!" she snapped. "I'm fine!"

She slowly felt her belly with her left hand and was startled to find it extremely hard. Now she was a little bit concerned. If the baby came tonight, she would never have a chance to talk to Hiccup about how she felt. She looked up at him and was not surprised in the least to see him stealing glances at her as if he was expecting her to explode. He blushed slightly when he caught her looking at him. No. She couldn't face that disappointment. Besides, it was probably nothing.

Another tightening feeling came over her and she leaned forward slightly, breathing deeply. She held up a hand before Hiccup could comment and, in a moment, the feeling went away.

Hiccup bit his lip, forcing himself to stay silent. It was all he could do to stop himself from jumping up, helping Astrid out of her seat, and rushing them to a healer. His heart pounded against his ribs. Was this it? Was he going to meet his little son or daughter in a few hours?

There was a very uncomfortable silence at the table. Hiccup couldn't figure out how to change the subject and Astrid was a bit preoccupied with her discomfort. Neither of them looked at each other for a few minutes.

"Thanks for the meal." Astrid said at last, the discomfort finally gone.

Hiccup gave her a very fake smile and stood up, clearing the plates away. He would have told his wife to stay where she was seated but she was probably going to need his help to get up anyway. Astrid seemed to have the same thought because she stayed put, gently stroking her belly and praying that she wouldn't have this discomfort again.

And then, once Hiccup had left the room, another feeling began to creep up. A feeling Astrid desperately tried to push down but found herself unable to do so. _Resentment_. This was supposed to be her night with her husband. Her first eight months of marriage. And this baby had come quite literally between them. He or she had taken their first few months away from them, forcing them to think about him or her instead of them. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. The child was supposed to be conceived when they _wanted_ a child. Not now.

 _No,_ Astrid thought. _You're not supposed to feel this way about your baby. It's not his fault._

But she couldn't think of anyone else to blame. Yes, she and Hiccup had made this baby but _other_ couples didn't have a child nine months after they got married.

And, for the first time, she began to fear her own feelings. No, she hadn't wanted this baby, but she assumed that she would want him or her when she could feel movement. Now that she felt movement all the time, she wanted the baby even less. She tried to force herself to love her child but the effort made her heart ache. She knew what it was like to love someone so strongly, she would die for them. That was how she loved Hiccup. And that was how she was supposed to love this baby.

 _What's wrong with me?_ She thought, gasping as another wave of discomfort hit her again. _Why can't I love this baby?_

Hiccup emerged from the kitchen and stopped, watching his wife stare into her plate almost as if she was trying to see through it. He had stared at nothing in particular before when he was lost in thought but Astrid didn't do that very often. She preferred the here and now while he tended to look to the future. It was one of the many things that balanced them out and made them such a good couple. He cleared his throat, snapping Astrid out of her reverie.

"If you want dessert, I… I made that too." Hiccup faltered as Astrid turned to him. Her eyes were wide with fear. "Are you okay?"

This was the moment. Astrid could tell him now. She could get it over with. She could tell her husband how she truly felt and then they would have time to talk about it. But as she stared into his eyes, her internal strength gave out.

"I'm just not feeling well." She said. "You know, maybe we should go to a healer. Just in case."

Hiccup nodded and helped her out of her chair. He gently put an arm around her shoulders and they walked to the healer's house together in complete silence.

"Well you're about to pop, aren't you?" the healer asked amiably when they got to her door. "What's the matter, honey?"

Astrid felt incredibly irritated at that comment but decided not to act on it. "Just feeling strange. Tight in the stomach, you know."

The healer shook her head. "Do you feel any pain?"

"No… not really. Just uncomfortable."

The healer placed her hand on Astrid's belly. "Hmm… I don't think it's actual labor. No, you'd probably know it if it was. This is just practice labor."

Hiccup and Astrid exchanged looks. "Practice labor?"

"Your body is getting ready to go into labor, honey. Nothing to worry about. Come back to me if your water breaks or you feel anything stronger, okay?"

Astrid's muscles seemed to loosen slightly. It wasn't time. Their baby wasn't coming now. She didn't have to worry about how she felt for another few weeks. As Hiccup thanked the healer and began to lead her home, Astrid breathed a sigh of relief.

She still had time to love this baby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always forget just how long Astrid waits to come clean with Hiccup. What an immature move on her part. But don't fret, that chapter is coming and even though it's been over 2 years since I wrote this and can definitely see my flaws as a writer, I still do like the birth scene. So I guess that's something to look forward to!


	12. Sore Ankles

Dagur the Deranged was frustrated.

It had been eleven weeks since he had threatened the future chief of Berk and he had been certain he would come up with the perfect plan of attack by then. But despite the weeks of preparation he should have had, he was just as stumped as before. He wanted a brilliant but subtle move. Something simultaneously daring and dangerous as well as simple and easy to carry out. But nothing was coming to mind. And he wasn't about to give up on his determination to have that Night Fury's head hanging above his fireplace.

The rest of the Berserkers had no idea what was taking so long. Not a day had gone by without one of them casually mentioning his delay in coming up with a strategy. He wanted to throttle the first few who did this but now he merely ignored them. There were more important things to do with his time.

"You're needed in the Great Hall." said one of his soldiers, opening Dagur's door and peering through.

Dagur turned to face him. "Yes. I'll be there shortly."

He didn't know why he had called this meeting. He had no new ideas. Perhaps one of the soldiers would give him one. He hated it when he wasn't the one to come up with their plans of attack but there seemed little choice in this matter. If they didn't strike soon, the Hooligans would believe that their threats were empty. Dagur scowled. His threats were never empty. He would strike back.

Well if he was going to strike back, he might as well get out of his chair and go to the meeting. He had always hated meetings. They were necessary evils, of course, but they were so boring. As he sat down at the head of the table, he ignored the opening remarks from his soldiers.

"I'm tapped out." he said at last, probably interrupting someone. "We need to strike Berk soon."

There was dead silence. And then another man spoke up.

"We've been waiting for you to tell us what to do."

Dagur slammed his fist into the table, making several men jump. "And I will!" he sat back and leaned against the back of the chair. "We need a plan that's simple yet effective. Berk is expecting a full out attack."

"Well they might be distracted, what with that new chief on the way." said another soldier. "We could just slip in while…"

"Shut up! Wait a minute! I… I've got it." Dagur's face cracked into a wide smile. "The perfect plan! Subtle but sends a strong message." He let out a loud laugh that echoed off the walls. "I'll have that Night Fury and Berk won't know what hit it. Now we just need a few minutes to work out the details."

"What details?" asked yet another soldier.

"Well we need a few people doing a patrol of the island. This has to be timed perfectly. Keep yourselves to the shadows and don't let yourself be seen." Dagur's smile widened. "The answer has been right under our noses this whole time. Now listen up. Here's what I'm thinking…"

The days were steadily getting longer and warmer. Several children could be seen splashing around in the sea and the dragons often went out to lie in the sunlight. Astrid was too uncomfortable to move. She wasn't sure if she had a fair complexion or if the pregnancy was making her more sensitive the sunlight. All she knew was that she didn't want to do anything physical anymore. Her body was heavy and her ankles ached even when her weight wasn't on them. And no amount of rubbing from Hiccup could dull the pain.

It had been a week since Hiccup had tried to make their anniversary special. One week and she still felt exactly the same then as she did before. Heather came by one day while she was relaxing with her feet propped up, taking deep breaths and feeling as though she wanted to spend some time away from her body.

"I'm leaving." she said as she entered the house without knocking.

Astrid looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. "I think you meant entering. Leaving is when you go through the door the other way."

Heather stopped and stared at Astrid for a few seconds, probably fighting the urge to laugh. Astrid smirked and Heather finally gave her a small smile.

"Okay, that came out wrong." Heather said, sitting beside her friend. "How are you feeling?"

"Completely miserable, thanks for asking." Astrid replied, shutting her eyes again and hoping Heather would see this as a sign that she should leave.

"It's been months, Astrid."

Here we go, Astrid thought, her eyebrows lowering slightly.

"You still haven't spoken to Hiccup and there isn't a lot of time left."

Why can't she just give it a rest?

"How do you think he's going to feel when you do tell him?"

He's not going to feel anything because I'm never going to tell him. At least not until our child is in his late fifties. Then Hiccup will be too senile to know what I just said.

Astrid realized after a few seconds that Heather actually wanted her to answer the question. She took a deep breath.

"It doesn't matter because I'm not telling him." she said, keeping her eyes shut.

"You are impossible sometimes!" Heather snapped, making Astrid jump. "You really plan on keeping this from your husband for the rest of his life? If it were me, I'm not sure I'd ever forgive you…"

"Well it's not you. And it's not your business to talk to me about what I talk about with my husband!" Astrid turned her head to face Heather. "So just leave it alone!"

"Leave what alone?"

Both women looked at the doorway where Hiccup was standing, a cluster of flowers in his hands. If he hadn't been so confused, he might have found the whole scene quite funny.

"Nothing. Heather here wants to see how bad my ankles have gotten and I told her to leave them alone." Astrid said quickly, not missing a beat.

Heather glared at her. "Sometimes they can suffer irreparable damage if you wait too long to do anything. I just wanted to make sure that wasn't the case."

"Is that so?" Hiccup asked, feeling as if he had walked in at the wrong moment. "Well I'm sure her ankles will be fine. I rub them every night."

Heather raised her eyebrows. "Well you'd think that would be enough but…"

"Maybe you should go, Heather." Astrid said, sounding a bit testy.

With a last glare in Astrid's direction, Heather stood up and turned to Hiccup. "I'm heading home to my parents so I'll be gone for a few weeks. But you and Astrid should definitely have a chat about those ankles. Before it's too late."

Astrid glared at Heather until the other woman was out of sight.

Hiccup had never been more happy or more excited in his entire life. As he repaired worn out pieces of his saddle in Gobber's workshop, he began to make up a song as he worked, threading the saddle in rhythm with it. He hadn't noticed anyone walking in (or the fact that his singing had grown louder) until someone tapped him on the shoulder and he very nearly fell out of his chair.

"It's just me." said Stoick, sitting down next to his son. "Nice song. Though you should probably talk to me about adopting the windstorm and the river."

Hiccup blushed scarlet. "I was just making it up as I go along."

Father and son sat in silence for a while. Hiccup turned back to his threading, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Stoick stared at him for a few minutes before speaking at last.

"Not long to go now." He said, keeping his eyes on Hiccup's left ear.

Hiccup nodded and Stoick couldn't help noticing that his hand trembled slightly as he continued to work.

"So what are you hoping for? Boy or girl?"

Hiccup looked up, his brow furrowed slightly. "I'll love this baby no matter what." he said, his eyes showing the tiniest glimmer of fear.

Stoick chuckled. "I used to say that about you. Pretty sure I used to get that look every time someone asked. I never said it but I actually was hoping you would be a boy. A good, strong boy that I could teach everything I knew. I didn't get that." Hiccup sighed. "The son I got was better than that. I know you've got your heart set on one or the other."

There was another long pause as Hiccup froze, mid stitch. He pursed his lips slightly, wondering if he dared say out loud what he had been thinking for months.

"A girl." he said quietly. "I want the baby to be a girl."

Stoick's eyebrows flitted upward. "We never had a woman as chief before."

"That's not why I want a girl. I mean a woman as chief would be a nice change and I'm sure she would be fantastic but it's not why."

If there was one thing Stoick knew about his son, it was that, if he waited long enough, Hiccup would continue talking to diffuse the tension. As he wanted more of an explanation, he stayed silent.

Sure enough. "Mom died when I was really little, you know? And you and Gobber practically raised me after that. And I'm really glad you were there. I'm not angry about how things happened. But until I got married, I never really had a female family member. I love Astrid so much but I think a little girl with Haddock blood in her veins… that would be perfect."

Stoick gently placed a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "Well I hope you get your girl. If not this time, maybe later on."

Hiccup looked at his father and could tell the older man was being quite genuine.

Another week passed without incident. Astrid felt herself growing heavier by the minute but Hiccup insisted that she had never looked more beautiful. Instead of finding these pronouncements sweet or endearing, she had to restrain herself from punching him.

Keeping her feelings from her husband got a lot harder with every passing day. When he placed his hand on her belly and felt a kick, he would look up and smile at her and she would feel a pang of guilt that she hastily shoved down.

She should have known it wouldn't last.

Astrid was lying down on the couch, so bored she was actually counting the days she and Hiccup had been married. Thirty-four weeks and three days… that was 241. 241 days she had been married and it seemed to have slipped away from her before she knew it. The baby kicked her, making her very glad she had used the outhouse ten minutes before. She turned to her side, hoping the pressure on her abdomen would lessen slightly but it didn't help. The baby's wiggling and jerking around was beginning to make her feel incredibly irritated. Did that baby ever settle down when she needed to rest?

Hiccup usually had things to do in the middle of the afternoon but he decided to be irresponsible for once and skip out on them. He sometimes had a sixth sense about his wife and he felt strongly that he would be more useful at home.

He smiled as he opened the door and caught sight of her lying with her feet propped up and both hands on her belly. At first, he wondered if he was wrong and that she was fine. But a strange expression on her face made him falter slightly. He sat down next to her and took her hand in his.

"You doing okay?" he asked, staring into her beautiful blue eyes.

He should have known that something was wrong when she shut her eyes rather than return his gaze. "I think so. I'm just tired."

He smiled, suddenly feeling overwhelmed with love for his wife. "You know, Astrid… I'm really proud of you."

Her eyes snapped open.

"I mean I know this wasn't planned and it's not what you or I wanted but you've been amazing."

She pulled her hand away from his. "Hiccup, please don't say…"

"I mean you've dealt with this day after day and I know it wasn't easy. But you've been so incredible."

She winced. ""Stop it, Hiccup!"

For a moment, there was silence. They stared at each other and Hiccup's mouth dropped open slightly. "What…"

"I... I can't keep doing this to you anymore!" Astrid said, sitting up and placing both hands on her belly.

Hiccup stared at her in concern. He wasn't sure but it was almost as if she was about to cry.

"Doing what?" he asked, his voice trembling slightly.

Astrid put her head in her hands, hiding her face from his. "I don't want it."

"Astrid, what are you…"

"This baby, Hiccup." she said, nearly clutching her face with her fingers. "I don't want this baby!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have noticed that I like cliff hangers. Just be thankful I'm posting this long after it was finished!


	13. Blowup

Hiccup's heart dropped into his stomach. He felt slightly dizzy as everything went out of focus except his wife, who was still sitting there with her face hidden in her hands, small strands of hair slowly falling between her fingers. There was no way he had heard what he had just heard. No way at all. It was impossible.

"Run that by me again… I'm not sure I heard you right." he managed to choke out, begging the gods that it was just a misunderstanding.

Astrid's head shot up. "What, do I have to spell it out for you? I. Don't. Want. It."

Hiccup stared at her for a second, his mouth slightly open. Then, quite suddenly, he stood up and began to pace back and forth, his hands waving about in a desperate attempt to respond to what he had just heard.

"What the... why wouldn't you... how?" he stammered, trying to string a coherent sentence together.

It took a few moments but Astrid stood up and patiently waited for him to face her. "Because we're not ready, Hiccup! We're young and stupid and haven't even been married a year and now we're going to add a baby to the mix?"

Hiccup looked like he had a million things to say, puckering his lips, starting a word just to stop it at the front of teeth.

After a minute he finally settled on a curt, "What exactly do you want me to say?" Astrid opened her mouth, but he seemed unable to stop once he got going. "You think we can just stop this? You're going to give birth in a matter of weeks, and you're telling me now that you don't want it? We didn't have much of a choice to begin with; we should've been more careful, but if you felt this way in the beginning and said something we could have talked about it. But no, you wait eight and a half months to come clean?"

She had never seen him act this way before. His hands waved about as he spoke and his face grew redder with every step he took. She was beginning to regret saying anything. But once she had started, there seemed little point in stopping. She gritted her teeth and promised herself that she would be honest no matter what Hiccup asked or how he acted. He deserved that much.

"I wanted to tell you, I really did but you were so excited!" she said, following him with her eyes and dreading the look she would receive when he turned back to her.

He didn't face her as he spoke. "You didn't think that maybe, just maybe, I might feel this way too? That I'm not nervous? That I don't wonder whether or not we're ready?"

For some reason, this statement struck a nerve with her. "Well you were able to put it off pretty quickly." she snapped.

"Just because I'm excited doesn't mean I'm not terrified out of my wits!" Hiccup retorted, finally turning to look at her.

And there it was. The look that she had been expecting. Those cold, disappointed, angry green eyes staring into her, nearly cutting into her flesh with their ferocity. She trembled slightly, feeling the worst she had ever felt since she had gotten married. There was no spark of warmth in his gaze, no glimmer of forgiveness. Just rage and bitterness. It was more than she could bear. She averted her eyes, choosing to stare at her belly since she couldn't see her feet.

After a long pause, she spoke up. "Why didn't you tell me…"

"NO!" Hiccup roared, making her jump. "Do not pin this on me! I wanted this baby the moment I found out it existed but you..." he paused and then suddenly smacked himself on the forehead. "Wait a minute... Heather knew. That's why she was glaring at you, isn't it?"

He continued to stare at her. She could feel his eyes on the top of her head.

"I…"

He suddenly lunged forward and grabbed her by the shoulders. "TELL ME!"

She finally looked up at him, trembling more violently than before and desperately searching for any warmth in his gaze. "Yes, she knew, she walked in on me and I was upset and I..."

He took a few steps back, grabbing fistfuls of his hair and, for a moment, was completely speechless. Astrid held her breath, her heart racing as she tried to steel herself against his reaction.

"You told her before me?" he finally asked in a threateningly soft voice.

She hadn't been expecting him not to shout; his cold, quiet voice was even more terrifying than anything she could have anticipated. "I d-didn't have much of a ch-choice; I didn't r-really think about it, it j-just came out and..."

"Who else knows?" Hiccup demanded, a fire in his eyes she hadn't seen before. He actually looked a lot like Stoick when he was this angry. He began pacing again, breathing through his teeth.

If it wasn't for her silent promise to be honest, Astrid would have refused to answer that question. She looked up at Hiccup, more terrified than she thought she would ever be in the presence of the man she loved most.

"I... I told Fishlegs but only because..."

"FISHLEGS?" Hiccup sputtered for a few seconds before he composed himself enough to form words. "You told Fishlegs before me?"

"I just needed someone to talk to…" Hiccup stopped and stared at her, his green eyes flashing with rage, and Astrid realized, too late, how that had sounded. "No, wait…"

"Oh, so you can't talk to me anymore, is that it? You can't trust me?" he asked in a very low voice.

"That's not what I meant, Hiccup, I just didn't want to upset you..."

He laughed a cruel, humorless laugh that seemed to echo all over the room. It was a frightening sound that made chills go up and her spine.

"Oh, I see how it is; you keep secrets from me because you don't want to upset me." He said, his pacing reaching a frantic speed. "That's just fine. Perfect, really. You'll tell anyone who wants to know but to talk to me about it, no that's just too upsetting!" he suddenly turned back to her so abruptly, she jumped away from him. "Well guess what, Astrid, I'm upset now!"

"H-Hiccup…"

"No! Stop trying to placate my anger right now! You know, it doesn't matter so much how I feel but what about that baby, huh?" he gestured to her belly and the baby made a very badly timed kick against her ribs.

She shook her head, feeling tears well up in her eyes. "Hiccup, don't…"

"Do you love our baby, Astrid?"

Astrid's blood ran cold. All the air seemed to be sucked out of her lungs. She had hoped he wouldn't ask that question. She couldn't answer that question. Not when he was this angry. The baby moved again, probably disturbed by the noise, and she felt the tiniest glimmer of the resentment she had been feeling creep up on her before she could stop it.

Hiccup apparently decided that she had waited long enough. "Tell me the truth."

"I…" she couldn't get the words out. No, this was just too much. She drew another weak breath and forced herself to complete the sentence. "I want to."

"That doesn't answer my question."

His face was nearly vermillion with rage. He seemed consumed by it, shaking slightly as he fixed his gaze on her. Astrid took a few steps back and he, thankfully, didn't follow her.

Her lower lip began to tremble but she forced her tears to stay in her eyelids. "No... I've tried and I just can't..."

Hiccup turned away from her, balling his fists and panting so loudly, the room seemed to be consumed with the noise. He slowly reached the table on the far end of the room and, without any warning, suddenly slammed both fists onto it with a very loud noise that made Astrid's heart stop for just a second. And then he did something he had never done before. He seized the nearest object, a small clay cup, and hurled it at the wall. It shattered and the ground was suddenly littered with tiny fragments. Astrid had backed up against the farthest wall now, fighting the urge to run away from him.

What he said next was so quiet, she could hardly hear him. "I... I can't even look at you right now."

The tears threatened to fall but Astrid gritted her teeth and refused to let them through. Her voice was weak and shaking but she forced it out of her throat.

"You don't think I feel horrible? Every time this baby moves I feel like I should be happy but instead I hate myself for not being excited or..."

"Then change how you feel!" Hiccup whirled around. "How you feel is a matter of choice, Astrid."

"That's not true…"

So even though I am exceptionally angry with you right now, that means I don't love you anymore?" Hiccup dared.

Astrid pursed her lips, knowing that wasn't true.

"So my comment stands."

She shook her head. "I can't…"

"Well try harder!" he shouted, grabbing another cup and throwing it on the ground. It too shattered with a loud crash and Astrid collided with the wall in her attempt to get away from him.

"Stop it, H-Hiccup, you're sc-scaring me!" Astrid pleaded.

Hiccup slammed his fist against the table again, nearly knocking it over. "I'm scaring you?" he pointed to her with a shaking finger. "You're standing there weeks away from giving birth to an innocent child you can't stand..."

"I didn't say that…"

"I don't want our baby to spend his or her entire life trying to win your love and affection just because of something he or she had NO control over!"

Astrid looked into his eyes. He wasn't about to go there. He wouldn't. He couldn't. Not Hiccup, not her husband. Not after everything they had gone through.

"Don't... don't you go there, Hiccup..."

He knew about her childhood, every single nasty detail, and he never brought it up. It was one of the things she loved about him. He couldn't cross that line. Not now. Not Hiccup.

"You, of all people…"

"Stop it!"

"No I won't stop it!" Hiccup spat, his face tense and a vein in his forehead pulsing. "What you're doing to that child, you know exactly how that feels and it is... it's disgusting what you're doing! I thought you were better than that but I guess blood really is thicker than water!"

There was a long pause filled with the loudest silence either of them had ever heard. Astrid's mouth slowly dropped open, her fear melting into her own rage. After a few seconds, Hiccup's eyes widened as he realized what he had just said but despite his efforts, he couldn't get any more words out of his mouth. He stood helpless as she slowly walked over to him, raised a hand, and, for the first time in her life, slapped him across the face. The sound reverberated off the walls, echoing in the silence. Her hand left an acute red mark on the left side of his face, which she noticed with satisfaction before turning away from him and storming out of the house without looking back.

Stormfly eyed her with concern once she reached the outdoors and, quite suddenly, Astrid felt reckless. Baby or no baby, she had gone without flying long enough. She would show that son-of-a-yak husband of hers that she could fly whenever the Hel she wanted. And he had about as much power to stop her as she had to stop herself from having this baby. As she climbed onto her dragon, she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen but ignored it as she directed her dragon to fly upward. After a moment, the pain disappeared.

She flew around Berk three or four times, enjoying the exhilarating taste of freedom she had been forced to avoid thanks to the idiot she married. Stormfly seemed to be enjoying the trip as well. Another pain blossomed in her abdomen but she decided not to do anything about it and it too passed after a few seconds.

Finally, having enjoyed her rebellion, she landed on the cliff where she and Hiccup used to meet. It was far away from most people and as long as her husband didn't decide to take a trek out there himself, she was likely to be alone. She slid off her dragon and sat down on the edge of the cliff, smiling at the realization that she was probably endangering herself even more with her feet dangling off the edge of a thirty foot drop into the rocky ocean below.

She hadn't realized that she had been muttering during the entire flight and that she was still muttering to herself when she landed. Several unpleasant words escaped her lips before she heard a timid voice behind her.

"Astrid?"

She whipped her head around and found herself staring at Fishlegs, who was kneeling next to some fresh berries on a bush a few feet behind her. They looked at each other for at least a minute, neither sure of what to say. And then Fishlegs slowly straightened up and took a few steps forward.

"You told him." It wasn't a question. Years of friendship made Astrid a bit of an open book sometimes.

She nodded as he sat down beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. They were silent again as, quite suddenly, the weight of the argument, everything Hiccup had said and everything she had felt, came down on her. She tried to fight down her tears but it was no use this time. It was as if they had called in reinforcements when she had been in the air and they spilled onto her cheeks. Her friend placed his arm around her shoulders and before she could stop herself, she let out a sob and crumpled onto him.

"I knew he would get mad... but I… I never thought he-he'd blow up like th-that." she wept, her tears soaking Fishlegs' shirt.

Fishlegs squeezed her shoulder, smiling gently down at her. "I think he'll come around, Astrid."

She shook her head. "He said some things that make me really doubt that."

"You're talking about Hiccup." Fishlegs said in a soft voice. "You know he'll be over here in a matter of hours with a new dagger for you and a heartfelt apology."

Astrid let out a weak chuckle just as a sharp pain shot up and down her belly. She winced and began to breathe deeply, shutting her eyes and trying to stop the pain but having no amount of success.

Fishlegs watched her slowly exhale with a frown. "You all right?"

"I… I don't know. It doesn't usually hurt this… ahhhh." Her eyes shot open and an expression of terror crossed over her features. "Oh gods… oh gods… Fishlegs, I think my water just broke!"

Fishlegs immediately jumped to his feet and helped Astrid up, taking in the sight of the clear fluid flowing out of her. Her water was broken all right. He looked down and saw a splotch of blood on the ground where she was sitting. She continued to breathe deeply, grimacing as the pain seemed to elevate. He felt frozen with horror, completely unable to move.

"Y-yes, I th-think that's it." He stammered.

Astrid looked up at him, her eyes wide with fear. "Get me to Hiccup."

Fishlegs still couldn't move. He couldn't stop staring at her clutching her belly and breathing shakily as if she hoped the pain would come out of her lungs if she breathed hard enough.

"Oh I don't know; how about you just keep standing there!" Astrid snapped, groaning as the pain reached its peak.

"Sorry, Astrid." Fishlegs said, shaking slightly. "Can you walk?"

Astrid nodded. "Yes… yes I can walk but I think I'm going to need a little help. Will you…"

Fishlegs nodded, wrapped a steady arm around her shoulders, and guided her towards the edge of the forest that led back to the village. It was slow going, Astrid beginning to pant and gasp at every blooming pain. Stormfly followed them, looking very concerned, but neither Fishlegs nor Astrid thought it was a good idea to fly her back to the village.

Maybe they were quiet. More than likely, Astrid and Fishlegs were far too preoccupied with the journey back to the village. But they didn't notice that they had company until a rope with stones at the end came out of nowhere and wound itself around Stormfly's legs, causing the dragon to howl and fall to the ground. Once they turned around, they realized with a thrill of horror that they were surrounded by men in helmets with spikes down the middle. Berserkers.

Dagur stepped forward, a look of triumph on his face. "Why hello, Astrid. Fishbone. Didn't expect to see you out and about so far from the village and the beloved husband."

Astrid suddenly bent over, clutching her enormous belly as another pain enveloped her. Dagur watched this with mild amusement.

"Looks like it's about time that bun came out of the oven."

Fishlegs stepped in front of Astrid, effectively shielding her from Dagur's view. "It's okay Astrid, keep breathing."

"Fishlegs, we have to get back…"

"Oh you're not going anywhere," Dagur sneered, walking around Fishlegs to see her again. "At least not anywhere... near here."

It happened so fast, neither Fishlegs nor Astrid could have predicted, or prevented, anything that followed. Dagur suddenly cocked his head at one of his soldiers across the clearing. The man strode forward from behind Fishlegs and butted the hilt of his sword into the back of his head. Fishlegs gasped in shock from the blow but soon slipped to the ground, limp as a rag doll.

"Fishlegs!" Astrid gasped, trying to maneuver around his falling form and keep her pain minimal.

Fishlegs lay in the dirt fully unconscious, leaving Astrid standing in the center of the men, defenseless. She held her arms around her belly protectively.

"Don't you hurt this baby!" Astrid cried, trying valiantly to ignore the pain radiating up and down her midsection.

Dagur cackled. "I wouldn't dream of it. In fact, I think it's vitally important that no harm comes to the future chief of Berk... for now."

He grabbed her arm and pulled her close to him. She slammed a fist onto his chest with a force that would knock Hiccup to the ground, but he stood firm and merely smirked.

"Come on, beautiful; time for a little vacation."

"Get your filthy hands off of me! HICCUP!" Astrid cried, trying to struggle against his grip on her wrist.

"Your precious hubby can't hear you. Not out here and not where we're going. But just in case... gag her."

A soldier strode forward and forcefully wrapped a cloth around her head. She struggled as much as she could but in her condition, she couldn't do much. The filthy rag was soon caught tightly between her teeth; she actually found it nice to bite on for her anger and her pain, but she couldn't call for help.

Dagur practically tossed her to a soldier, making her stumble and clutch her belly. "Tie her hands too unless you want to have a broken nose. She's a feisty one. Hurry up and let's get out of here." Dagur strode forward as her hands were tied behind her back. "And put down a cloth. I think her water's broken and I don't want to have that cleaned off of one of our ships."

"What about the dragon?" asked a soldier, taking out his sword and eyeing Stormfly hungrily.

Dagur sighed. "Don't kill it. No room for it on the ship and it'll make enough noise to bring the whole village here. Just tie it up and get going."

Astrid watched helplessly as the men roughly forced Stormfly's mouth shut and tied it up. She wouldn't be able to alert anyone to their presence now.

The man roughly shoved her forward down the rocky terrain. They walked through the forest for at least a mile, Astrid biting the cloth hard to not cry out in pain. Her heart pounded; she looked around constantly for a way to get free of these kidnappers. Aside from the fact that they were kidnapping her and probably planning an attack on the village, she was about to give birth! There were few chances, especially with her growing pains but, at one point, she took a chance and tried to run off. The nearest man chased her down in seconds, grabbed her by the braid and yanked her back. He raised a fist to hit her, making her curl over her belly, but Dagur suddenly grabbed the man's outstretched fist.

"Ah ah ah..." He warned with a sadistic smile. "Wouldn't want a deformed child now would we?" Astrid visibly shook, unsure if he was being sarcastic or not. "However," Dagur squatted down beside her, "If you try to run away again, I won't stop him. Now let's go."

He wrenched her to her feet and shoved her back into line. This time four men nearly three times her size surrounded her, effectively breaking off any means of escape. Soon they came out of the forest and the Berserker's ships were in plain view. If only someone would fly by on their dragon to the other side of the island, they'd see them! As he escorted her up the gangplank of his ship, Dagur smiled at her with an evil eye.

"The exchange is simple. Wife and baby for Night Fury. Hiccup's choice to fully display where his allegiance truly lies. With people or with filthy flying lizards. Astrid couldn't say a word, but her eyes conveyed a million expressions. Dagur bent forward with a hand to his ear. "What's that? Oh that's right. You're gagged…."Astrid slammed her head forward into his nose, making him jump back with a yelp. "Gah..." he growled. "Put her in the brig. And don't forget to put down that blasted cloth!"

His men carried Astrid away, struggling and trying to break free. "Set sail!" Dagur called and watched Berk grow smaller into the distance. Finally he'd have his revenge. Finally he'd destroy Hiccup. Finally he'd have the Night Fury hanging above his fireplace.

At last, everything was going right.


	14. Guilty Conscience

Hiccup could not believe what had just come out of his mouth. What the Hel had happened to his brain? His common sense? His humanity? Had they all just slipped away while he said the most horrible thing he could imagine to his wife who, on top of suffering from flashbacks, was mere weeks away from giving birth? Nothing she said deserved that kind of response. Why had he said it? What was wrong with him?

He opened his mouth but no sound came out. He shut it again, furious at himself for having no words to say to undo the worst thing he had ever said in his life. He stood frozen, watching his wife slowly walk over, raise her hand, and slap him across the face. She had hit him so hard, sounds were slightly muffled in his left ear for the next few minutes. A sharp pain radiated all over half of his face and he was surprised at her strength. For a second, they stared at each other, neither able to say a thing, and then she turned around and walked away from him.

He could hear his heart thudding in his chest as he slowly lifted his hand and touched the place she had hit him. It stung slightly but the worst of the pain had passed. He vaguely heard her take off on Stormfly and had the tiniest urge to run after her. No. He wasn't going to do that. He was going to let her cool off and come to him. She hated it when he tried to make up before she was ready. And if there was one thing he knew about his wife, it was that she would eventually come around.

It was a few minutes before he realized that she was long gone and that he should probably clean up the mess he had made. He looked down at the shattered fragments of the cups he had destroyed in his anger and was appalled that he had gone that far. He had never lost control like that. And Astrid's face as he shouted at her… she had certainly never looked at him like that before. Very slowly, he lowered himself to his knees and silently picked up the broken pieces of clay. When Astrid returned, he didn't want her to accidentally step on them. Once he had picked up the large pieces, he placed them on the table and brought out a broom, carefully sweeping away the rest of the fragments so that it was if he hadn't lost control at all. This only took about ten minutes so, once he had finished, he still wasn't sure what to do. What could possibly make up for what he had said?

As he began to slowly pace around, he caught sight of something on the wall, something he had seen many times but hadn't fully registered. It was a horribly made dagger, lopsided and not in any way sharp. He immediately recognized it as the first one he had ever made in Gobber's workshop. And then he had presented it to Astrid when they were about six years old. Was that how old they were? That sounded about right. He remembered the hours he had spent trying to get the shape right and how proud he had been when he finally finished it and presented it to the girl he liked. How she had smiled when she saw it, clearly not caring that it wasn't the least bit dangerous. And she had saved it for all these years and hung it on the wall.

She needed a better dagger. One he made for her that she could actually use. And that was the best thing he could think of to give her to make her feel better. He quickly walked out the door and, ignoring Toothless completely, jogged to Gobber's workshop. Gobber had his head in Hookfang's mouth (something Hiccup thought was incredibly risky) and seemed to be cleaning the dragon's back teeth.

As he crafted the dagger, he felt like he was pounding his own words into oblivion. He hated himself for what he had said to his wife. He desperately hoped that she would come home that night so he could beg for her forgiveness. He wouldn't put it past her to spend another night with Ruffnut and Tuffnut. This thought didn't comfort him at all.

When he finally finished the dagger, it was the most perfect thing he had ever made. Perhaps it was his anger that gave him the ability to craft such a fine weapon. Maybe it was his guilt. Either way, Astrid would love it. And, just because he was still feeling guilty, he decided to carve her name into the hilt. It took hours but it was perfect. Hopefully she would appreciate it and, if he was lucky, her anger at him would melt away. And then they could have a long talk about what to do about their baby. Yes, everything was going to be okay soon.

He returned home as the sun was beginning to set and paced back and forth, waiting for her to show up. When Berk was finally bathed in total darkness, he thought it would be best to check and see if she had spent a night with one of their friends. He couldn't figure out why but he was beginning to feel something strange in the pit of his stomach. Something wasn't right. It was probably nothing but he had to make sure his wife was okay.

It only took him a few minutes to spot one of his friends mulling about and looking bored. Snotlout raised an eyebrow as Hiccup immediately made a beeline to him.

"Have you seen Astrid?" Hiccup asked, sounding slightly breathless.

"Not since yesterday." Snotlout shrugged. "How could you have lost her, she's the size of a…"

"Shut up." said Hiccup, in no mood to play games. "Let me know if you see her."

But no one he spoke to had seen her. Even the twins denied having seen as much as a glimpse of her all day. As did her mother. And, now he thought about it, Fishlegs was missing as well. His feeling of unease began to take over. Where had she gone?

And then he remembered. Of course. _Their spot._ No one would have run into her there unless they went out of their way to fly or walk to the other end of the island. And she had spoken to Fishlegs before so perhaps that's where they were. Feeling slightly relieved, he hopped onto Toothless and flew to their spot.

But the cliff was empty. Hiccup was just about to climb back onto his dragon when something caught his eye on the edge. Right where Astrid would have been sitting if she had come there. He looked closer and his insides froze. _Blood._

Something had happened there. He could feel it. He had no idea how long ago this had occurred but he knew that something was horribly wrong. On a whim, he decided to walk back to the village with Toothless at his side, thinking that perhaps Astrid had ridden Stormfly back and that he could find her in the woods. For a few seconds, he heard only the sound of his foot and prosthetic breaking twigs and crunching through dead leaves as he walked with his dragon slightly behind him.

And then he saw it. A massive dragon lying on the path ahead of him. As he raised his lantern, he immediately recognized those spikes. Stormfly.

"What the… what happened to you?" he muttered, pulling out his own dagger and cutting the dragon free.

The Deadly Nadder began to screech at him, almost as if she was trying to tell him something. Toothless began to squawk in response and the Night Fury looked panicked a moment later.

"What is it, girl? Where's Astrid?" Hiccup asked, his legs beginning to tremble slightly.

"Ohhh my head…"

For a split second, Hiccup hoped that the voice had come from his wife but the lower register came as a disappointment. But at least he had managed to find Fishlegs.

"Are you okay?" Hiccup asked as he held the lantern over Fishlegs' slowly stirring form.

"Don't know… maybe… I think so…" Fishlegs said, groaning and slowly standing up.

For a moment, the two young men silently stared at each other. Fishlegs looked as if he had been knocked out. Probably by the people who had tied up Stormfly. Suddenly, the blonde Viking's eyes widened as he remembered what had just happened.

"Hiccup!" he shouted. "Oh gods, Hiccup, Astrid!"

Hiccup's heart felt as though it had dropped through his stomach. So something _had_ happened to her.

"What is it?" he asked, grabbing the man's shoulders. "What happened?"

"We were walking and they came out of nowhere! Knocked me out and I think they took her!" Fishlegs said, breathing heavily.

"Who took her? Fishlegs, tell me who took her!"

Fishlegs took a gulp of air before replying. "The Berserkers. Dagur was here and he… oh gods, it's dark, it must have been hours ago!"

"He took her?" Hiccup let go of Fishlegs' shoulders and ran his fingers though his hair. "Well we've got to get back to the village, we don't have much…"

"That's not all! Hiccup, her water broke!"

Absolute silence. Hiccup's heart had settled somewhere in his throat now. Not now. _Not now!_

"We gotta get to my dad." he said in a shaky whisper. With that, he turned and sprinted toward the village as fast as he could run, Fishlegs and Toothless chasing after him. In his panic, he had completely forgotten he had a dragon at all

Hiccup hurtled through the trees, branches slapping face. One in particular probably cut his cheek, but he didn't stop, nor did he feel it. It briefly registered to him that he was running so much faster than usual on his prosthetic but he figured that adrenaline was making everything on the ground easier to see. He finally reached the village, but didn't stop.

He bolted to the square, running past people and nearly plowing Edgar over (thankfully the boy managed to see him coming and jumped back). Gobber didn't fare so well however. Hiccup ran smack into the man's side, knocking him off his feet and sending them both flying.

"GAH! Hiccup!" Gobber started shouting, but he stopped when he saw Hiccup panting, slick with sweat and practically hyperventilating. "Hiccup, what's…"

"Where's my dad?!" he interrupted, eyes wide. By now a crowd had gathered around them, curious of what was going on.

Gobber smiled lightly, "Now if this is about Astrid and the baby-"

Hiccup suddenly grabbed him by the shirt, "GOBBER, WHERE IS MY DAD!"

"Hiccup?"

Hiccup whipped around and saw Stoick shoving his way through the crowd.

"Dad! Dad!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, feeling like his voice was tearing at his throat. "Berserkers… Astrid… the baby…"

Stoick put his hands on his shoulders and tried to calm him down. "Son, slow down. Take a deep breath." Hiccup shook his head vehemently, but tried to slow his breathing and focus his vision on something or someone. By this time Fishlegs had caught up.

"Chief, we don't have time to slow down! The Berserkers kidnapped Astrid hours ago. She's in labor; we don't have time at all, we need to get a plan and save her! I rate our chances of saving her at…"

Hiccup finally had caught his breath and nearly lashed out at him. "Don't you dare finish that sentence! The lives of my wife and unborn child are not to be chalked up to some statistic!"

Stoick laid a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "Easy..." he warned. He then turned to the rest of the villagers. "Everyone, to the Great Hall for an emergency meeting! We have to make preparations."

He took a few steps forward but noticed that Hiccup didn't follow. The young man was pale and looked as if he had just seen a ghost.

"Son?"

Hiccup shook his head, running his fingers through his hair. "It's my fault."

"Don't be ridiculous, it's a natural…"

"We got into an argument. Astrid and me. And she stormed out and I didn't follow her and now she's gone and probably in pain and it's my fault, dad!" Hiccup forced back the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes. "What I did, what I said, I scared her, maybe that's why…"

Stoick roughly grabbed his son's shoulders, startling the young man. "That may very well be true but now she needs you more than she's ever needed anyone and, so help me Thor, you _will_ be there for her."

"How long until she has the baby?" Hiccup asked in a weak, slightly hoarse, voice.

"No way to know for sure. But we can't worry about that now. We need to put together a plan and we're going to have to risk not getting there before the baby comes." He shook his son's shoulders again. "Hiccup, listen to me, you have got to focus on saving Astrid. Put aside your feelings for now. She needs you, son."

Hiccup looked up at his father and nodded once. The two men walked to the Great Hall in silence as most of the village poured into it. Hiccup sat down next to his friends and felt a slight ache at Astrid's absence. He certainly wouldn't have let her embark on this mission if they were rescuing someone else but now that she was the one who needed saving, her absence stuck out and everyone saw it. It seemed to give the Hooligans a renewed resolve to get her back and save the baby.

Stoick stood up in front of the tribe, causing an instant silence to fall over the crowd. As he explained what had transpired, for anyone who hadn't been present for Hiccup and Fishlegs' outburst, there were several gasps. Astrid's mother looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"We'll have to be careful." said Stoick, peering around the hall at his fellow tribesmen. "Obviously Dagur wants a war with this move."

"Oh trust me." Hiccup muttered darkly. "He'll get one."

* * *

Astrid was surprised that he had considered it at all, but in the end he had one of his men carry her to a holding cell. That was the most hospitality she'd gotten from them since she was kidnapped. Now she was cold, sweaty, shaking, her breathing labored, pain wracking her midsection, bloody water still pooling under her skirt, and her hands and mouth still tied, so all she could do was sit there.

For the next few hours, she put herself to work trying to free herself from her gag. The pains bloomed every few minutes, making her gasp and moan. The soldier who had tied the rag around her mouth had done quite a good job and it was a long time before she was free of it. As the rag dropped to her shoulders, a sharp, agonizing pain shot through her midsection and she cried out, breathing deeply and begging the gods to make it stop.

She heard someone enter from her far left and approach the bars of the cell. Looking up, she found herself eye-to-eye with Dagur, who had crouched down to her level.

"Don't you just look beautiful…"

"Shut up and get me a midwife," she gasped.

"Maybe I will..." Dagur put a hand to his chin thoughtfully. "If you ask nicely."

Astrid bit her lip and panted hard for a minute, trying to not look weak and helpless in his presence. The pain finally ebbed and she fell back against the wall. She had about four minutes of rest until it started up again. She could feel sweat pouring down her face and she knew she must look terrible. Perhaps that was why Dagur was smiling so widely now.

"Tell you what, if Hiccup doesn't take my deal, maybe I'll let your baby live here. Train with me as a Berserker. You never know, maybe he'll inherit his grandfather's strength. Might be a good warrior for us." Dagur chuckled. "And if it's a girl, well…" he leaned into the bars. "Someone has to do the housework."

"You son of a…"

"Yes, yes, nothing I haven't heard before. But it might behoove you to encourage your husband to take me up on my offer if he wants his precious child back. Not long to go now, is there?" Dagur straightened up and turned away from her. "Let me know when you feel like asking nicely and I might send someone in to help you have that baby."

He took the only torch in the room, plunging it into darkness. Astrid felt another pain shoot through her belly and, before she could stop herself, she screamed both in agony and in rage.


	15. Against the Clock

Hiccup had never been more antsy or livid in his entire life; he felt as if anything he looked at might set aflame at his gaze. He had to restrain himself from riding Toothless too hard on their way to Berserker Island. Every cell in his body, every pump of his blood from his heart into his veins fueled him so that he felt he could do anything. And to save his wife and child, he would.

According to Fishlegs, Astrid had been gone for ten hours. Hiccup had heard that labor took a long time but he had no idea how long and he prayed to every god he could think of that the baby hadn't come yet. The thought of Astrid giving birth by herself in what was probably a filthy holding cell was more than he could bear.

Hiccup was pulled out of his thoughts by his father's voice calling to the Hooligans riding dragons around and behind him.

"All right, you know what we're here for. We're for Astrid and the baby, and them only. Do what you must to find them, but let's do our best to avoid a war."

At this point, Hiccup didn't care if there was a war. As long as his wife and baby were safe, he wouldn't have cared if they annihilated Berserker Island entirely. The tribesmen behind him seemed to have the same thought as they flew over the ocean and tiny islands beneath.

Hundreds of Berserker soldiers were stationed all over the island and the lanterns were a dead giveaway. Hiccup figured that Dagur would want them to look intimidating. As they flew closer, they noticed that the lanterns dramatically outnumbered the soldiers posted. So it was just a ruse to frighten them away. Hiccup would have gone there personally without any help if it meant saving his wife and child. And Dagur should have known that.

The moment they landed, they were plunged in chaos. Soldiers came from every side of them, wielding swords and attacking. Dragon fire mixed and swords clashed, the roars of men and dragons mingling-by any Viking's standards, it was a beautiful battle. Well they certainly lived up to their name, Hiccup thought, but how was he going to find his wife over all this commotion?

They had broken into small groups to fight and travel with to make it a bit easier for everyone. His group was all of his friends and Stoick, who would probably be strong enough to keep them safe if any danger came to them. Gobber led the strongest soldiers. They figured that the Berserkers would be expecting Stoick to take charge of the strongest soldiers so it would be a good distraction so that he and the younger Vikings could get away.

Stoick had only been to Berserker Island twice before and, as he had been visiting Osvald the Agreeable at the time, he hadn't even been shown where the prison was or where the weapons were kept. Now he was starting to understand why Dagur had found the tour necessary years ago when he first came to Berk.

Actually, he thought, where was Dagur? Stoick thought he would be out with his soldiers fighting or at least out looking for him or Hiccup. But Dagur was nowhere to be found. As they ran through the battling soldiers, Stoick kept an eye out for the familiar horned helmet of his adversary but he saw nothing but more Berserker soldiers.

"Maybe we should just look everywhere." said Snotlout after a few minutes of confused running about. "Doesn't matter what the building looks like, just open the door and check to see if Astrid's there."

Stoick nodded at this suggestion and even Hiccup was impressed. That wasn't a bad idea.

The team ran down the street, each kicking doors open to different houses and searching for Astrid. Women and children screamed from inside a few, but none fought back and no soldiers were inside to protect them. But the Berserker villagers were shocked when the Hooligans called one name, "Astrid!" and ran out after a few seconds of silence.

This routine continued for nearly ten minutes, the Hooligans smashing into houses and barns, shouting their friend's name. Hiccup was in the loft of a barn and found it to be empty. But upon turning to the stairs, dragon fire had begun to burn at the foundation. Straw and dry wood crackled and fire licked up the beams. The barn was half aflame by the time Hiccup realized it.

Hiccup ran to the window above the barn door and kicked it open. "Toothless!"

His dragon roared at him and bounded forward. Just as a burning beam fell toward him, Hiccup jumped out of the window. Time slowed for a moment. Toothless stretched himself forward, barely managing to catch Hiccup on his neck. The duo crashed and tumbled in the dirt, sending up a cloud of dust.

Stoick ran over and pulled his groaning son to his feet. "You all right?"

"Peachy." Hiccup growled. "Where the Hel did he put her? We're running out of time!"

Fishlegs laid a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Hey, we're gong to find her. She's got to be here somewhere, so let's keep looking."

Hiccup bit back a retort of the man's optimism and nodded. He trotted behind Snotlout to a new line of houses down the street.

Several houses later, they decided that private homes were smaller than public places. Astrid wasn't in their Great Hall. She also wasn't in the armory. But the Berserker prison was nowhere to be found. Was there one? They checked the Great Hall a second time to see if there was a dungeon of some sort but there wasn't one.

"We're going to have to split up." Stoick said at last, having checked every building he could find. "Look around the forest to see if there's one we missed. The twins and Fishlegs, you check the south side of the island. Hiccup, Snotlout and I will go north. We'll send a plasma blast into the air if we need you to come and you fire into the air if you need us to come."

There was no protest. Several buildings were ignited in the battle by the dragons and the smoke was very disorienting. But, as they got to the edge of the woods, Hiccup pointed to the ground.

"There's a path here. Maybe that leads somewhere important." he said and, without any hesitation, hopped on his dragon and they sprinted up the path.

It wound itself around the trees for nearly a mile before they came to a large, well hidden building. From the sky, they never would have noticed it, even in the daytime. It was set atop a hill so that the raging battle was visible through its few small windows. Hiccup took hold of the door and forced it open.

"I was wondering when you would get here." said a horribly familiar voice in the darkness.

"I have a message and a question." Hiccup, shaking with rage, stepped forward. "A message from my people and a question from me." He said, trying to keep his voice steady. "Where. Is. My. Wife?"

There was the sound of laughter and then, "Well that's the question. What's your message?"

Just as the man bathed in shadows uttered these words, a gigantic explosion shook the ground as what appeared to the armory went up in flames. Smirking slightly, Hiccup took another step forward.

"Would you like me to repeat the question?"

"No need." Dagur the Deranged stepped forward, gripping Astrid with one hand while using the other to keep a knife on her throat. "Looks like I found her."

For a moment, Hiccup stood there, sword in hand, dragon at his side, and too frightened to move. Stoick and Snotlout, standing just behind them with their own dragons, also faltered.

Hiccup leaned to Toothless. "Light the torches, bud." He said and Toothless immediately complied, sending a plasma blast at all the unlit torches in the room.

He almost wished he had left the room dark. Astrid was pale and panting, completely sagging in Dagur's arms so that he had to hold her up. His eyes flitted to the cell next to them and was horrified to see bloodstains all over it. He turned back to Dagur, who was holding the knife so close to Astrid's throat, he could see it cutting into her skin.

"Don't… don't hurt her." he said, shakily dropping his sword. "Please don't hurt her. Take me instead."

"No!" Astrid rasped.

"Oh I'm barely doing anything. Your kid is doing all my work for me." Dagur let out an insane cackle. "Thanks for that, Hiccup; you saved me the trouble of torturing her myself."

"Please Dagur, let her go and take me." Hiccup pleaded, unable to take his eyes off of his wife.

"Oho, this is just too good!" Dagur guffawed. "But it's not you I want. It's that dragon."

"T-Toothless?"

Toothless made a strange gurgling noise at the sound of his name. Dagur's face split into a horrible smile at the panicked look on both dragon and trainer's faces.

Stoick placed a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "You know that's not going to happen, Dagur."

Dagur lowered the knife, away from Astrid's neck and faced it towards her belly.

"No!" Astrid and Hiccup both screamed, Stoick and Snotlout yanking Hiccup back.

"Dagur, don't!" Stoick shouted, halting any action the man might have taken

"And why shouldn't I?" Dagur's eyes glinted maliciously. "Your choice! Family or dragon!"

"They're all my family; you can't have any of them." Hiccup growled. "Take. Me."

"Hiccup, no…"

But Hiccup couldn't think straight, not now that he could see beads of blood on the knife forming. If Dagur pressed the knife any closer, his baby would surely be killed. Astrid began to try to free her hands, hoping that she could deliver a punch hard enough to send Dagur backward. Her persistent struggling with her bonds had loosened them a bit… if she could just wiggle her hands out, maybe she could get away.

"Dagur, listen, you can have me. Kill me, torture me, do whatever you want but please don't hurt Astrid or our baby!" Hiccup begged.

"You know the terms of our trade. Time's running out, Hiccup. Make a decision." Dagur felt the baby move under his arm and his grin widened. "Your baby feels like he's going to be a fighter. Wouldn't want to miss out on that, would you?"

"No, we really don't." said Astrid, a tiny smirk on her face as she finally extricated her hands from her bonds

For the last minute, she had been feeling for the dagger that he always kept strapped to his leg. Once her hands were free, she grabbed it by the hilt and immediately thrust it into the Berserker's chief's upper leg, causing him to howl in pain and fall onto his side bringing her down with him. For one horrible moment, she feared that the impact had killed her baby but a moment later, she felt a tiny kick and was relieved that the baby was still alive.

Hiccup beamed at his wife, a new kind of pride in her surging through his chest. He quickly kicked away the knife, which had been dropped in the confusion and waited for her to slide off of the Berserker so that he could get a good shot at him.

"That's my Astrid." he said, leaping forward and pinning Dagur to the ground. "And this is me!"

Before Dagur could react, Hiccup's fist collided with his face, knocking out several teeth in the process. Dagur howled in pain again, blood pouring out of his mouth and covering Hiccup's hand.

"I told you that's what would happen for laying a hand on my wife! Next time it's your nose!" Hiccup shouted, raising his fist again.

Stoick grabbed Hiccup's fist before it could collide with Dagur one more time. "You got him, son." He said, motioning for Snotlout to take off Dagur's helmet so that he could kick the chief of the Berserkers on the head to knock him out.

"He should suffer for what he…" Hiccup shouted but a cry interrupted him.

Astrid was lying against the wall, screaming and clutching her belly. "Get me a midwife now!" she wailed, her face contorted as the agonizing pain ripped through her insides.

"No!" Hiccup shouted, bounding over to his wife. "You're not having this baby here."

"Hiccup, I can't…"

"No, Astrid..." He held her chilled, sweaty face in his hands. "We'll figure something out. Anywhere but here. Not this place."

Astrid took a slow, deep breath and nodded. "All right... let's go then."

Hiccup placed his arms beneath her and tried to pick her up. He couldn't even get her off the ground. Stoick stepped forward and roughly pushed him aside, gently picking up the young woman and carrying her out of the prison. Hiccup and Snotlout followed and, once they were outside, Toothless sent a plasma blast into the air. Stoick carefully placed Astrid on Toothless' back.

Hiccup mounted Toothless behind her and placed his arms around her. At that moment, the twins and Fishlegs came flying in. Upon seeing Astrid, thankfully still pregnant, they looked relieved.

"I'll take care of this mess, Hiccup." Stoick placed his hands on his son's shoulders. "Keep an eye out for land. You'll be lucky if you make it halfway home."

"How do you know?" Astrid gasped, her face paling even more.

Stoick placed a hand on her shoulder and firmly replied, "I just know." He patted her shoulder a few times. "You're going to be fine."

And with that, the dragons took off, leaving Berserker Island for what was, hopefully, the last time. Astrid cried out as another pain took over and Hiccup tightened his hold around her.

The question was no longer how long it would take to get back to Berk. Now it was how far away from Berserker Island they could get before the youngest Haddock came into the world. And, Hiccup thought as Astrid clutched her belly and panted heavily, there wasn't much time left.


	16. Emergency Landing

The sun was beginning to come up over the horizon, casting a strange reddish glow on the ocean beneath them. Hiccup couldn't believe he and the others had been awake all night. The whole ordeal from finding out Astrid had been captured to where he was now, riding on Toothless' back with her in his arms, seemed to have lasted seconds. And perhaps it was adrenaline but he didn't feel the least bit tired.

If only the same could be said about his wife. As Astrid, who had refused to straddle Toothless, leaned against him, he could feel the sweat on her face soaking through his clothing and her cries of pain were quieter and more breathless. Hiccup had to hold her rather tightly to make sure she wouldn't be blown off the dragon midair but he couldn't help stealing glances at her paling face and praying to the gods that she and their baby would be okay. As they flew farther from Berserker Island, another pain seized her, making her moan and clutch her belly. Hiccup felt a tightening in his own stomach. Somewhere inside of his mind, he knew that it was a natural process and that it wasn't his fault that his wife was in pain but his heart wouldn't listen. He felt like he was punching Astrid in the stomach every few seconds, unable to stop and feeling horrible when she cried out. When he imagined the birth of their child, he had pictured it in the healer's house with Astrid being given herbs for the pains. They weren't as effective as they might have liked but at least it would be tolerable. But it was clear that the pains were far worse than either of them had expected and the stress of the last few hours wasn't helping things.

The pain finally came to an end and Astrid crumpled into him, gasping for breath. He didn't know what to say. There weren't enough words to express how sorry he was for his words hours ago but this seemed to be the wrong time. Before she had time to recover from the last contraction, she was seized with another which made her tense and clutch her belly once more, looking as though it hurt worse than the last.

"Breathe, Astrid." he reminded her, gently rubbing her back with his arm. "Deep breaths. You're going to be okay."

Without realizing it, he tightened his hold on her every time she was hit by another contraction.

"Hiccup, you're squishing me." Astrid said at last, feeling completely constricted.

"I'm so sorry." Hiccup said, loosening his hold and allowing his wife to breathe easier.

Rather than respond, Astrid cried out, her hands clutching Hiccup's shirt. Her sudden scream threw Toothless out of his flight pattern for a moment. Hiccup jerked and tried to calm her.

"Shh, it's okay. We'll make it. Toothless, faster!"

Astrid shook her head, her eyes squeezed shut. "No."

"What?" Ast-"

"Hiccup..." Astrid breathed, her face ashen. "Land, Land right now. NOW!"

Hiccup heeled Toothless' gear into the landing position and they swooped to the ground without notifying the others in the group. They shouted in shock when the Haddocks plummeted but quickly followed suit. Thank the gods for a few rocky spits of land in the middle of the ocean, for that was where they landed. That was where Hiccup and Astrid's lives changed forever.

Not giving time for her husband to assist her, Astrid slid off Toothless the moment they landed, grasping for breath and collapsing onto the ground. Hiccup soon followed, his deep concern evident in his facial features. Abruptly, she began to scoot herself over to a near-by boulder. Wanting to assist her in any way he could, Hiccup, did his best to support her and situate her against the rock. In a quick movement, Astrid stripped her filthy pants off of her legs and tossed them aside, leaving only her skirt. Hiccup's eyes widened.

"It's time."

She nodded, looking terrified, and leaned against the boulder just as the others landed around them. Hiccup felt completely useless as he watched her clutch her belly and breathe heavily. There had to be something he could do for her. The answer came seconds later. He leaned forward and placed a hand on her back.

"Sit up." he whispered.

"Hiccup-"

"Trust me, Astrid, just for a second."

She complied and he squeezed in behind her, sitting between her and the boulder so she would be comfortable. She smiled as she remembered that this was one of the many things she loved most about him: his selflessness. She leaned down on his chest and was surprised to find herself nice and warm in his arms. In fact, if it wasn't for the agonizing pain shooting through her body (not to mention the racket his racing heart was making), she might have been able to fall asleep.

"Ruff!" Hiccup called. The young woman ran over and he asked, "You said you have delivered a baby before?"

"Well, yeah but that was like a year ago and it was the fifth kid in the family so the mom was telling me what to-"

"Spare us the details. You're delivering ours."

"But I don't know what I'm supposed to-"

"It's you or one of those guys!" Hiccup irritably gestured to Tuffnut, Snotlout, and Fishlegs.

Ruffnut looked over at the three men. Both Fishlegs and Snotlout were shaking their heads profusely, their eyes fixed on a spot over her right shoulder.

Tuffnut stepped up."Well, I could-"

"Okay, I'll do it!" she hastily interrupted.

Rather than run over to Astrid, Ruffnut made a beeline to the water

"Uhh… Astrid's that way." Tuffnut said, pointing to her and looking very confused. "Where are you going?"

"I'm sanitizing my hands, idiot!" Ruffnut shouted back.

As Ruffnut washed her hands in the ocean (no one thought it would do any good but it was better than nothing), Astrid clutched Hiccup's wrist.

"This is too soon." she gasped. "I can't do this, I can't have this baby, I'm not ready yet!"

Hiccup gently kissed her left temple. "I'm not either. But I _know_ you can do this."

"I should have been honest with you, we could have talked about it!" a few tears slipped out of Astrid's eyes as she shakily breathed, her pains increasing every second.

"I know. But right now we have to focus on the baby, okay? Don't think about anything else." Hiccup whispered, his breath feeling very warm on her cold face. "When this is over with, we are going to talk about it because you are going to be _fine_. Do you hear me?" he sounded like he was trying to convince himself of what he was saying, which was not at all comforting to his wife.

Astrid nodded, her grip on Hiccup's wrist tightening. "I'm so scared."

"Me too." Hiccup kissed her on the temple again, his heart pounding so hard he could barely hear himself think. "I'm here, Astrid, and I'm not going anywhere."

Several more tears slipped out of Astrid's eyes as the pains shot through her abdomen. "Just hold me."

Hiccup slipped his left arm out of her grip and entwined his fingers with hers, placing his other arm around her. "Always."

Ruffnut had finally finished washing her hands. She rushed over and bent down in front of Astrid.

"Cool, I can see its head!" she shouted, getting on her knees. "Astrid, breathe! Snotlout I need some cloth and Fish, I need hot water!"

The two men stood there with mouths gaping. Snotlout looked paler and paler by the second.

"Did you not hear me? MOVE!" Ruffnut roared. "We don't have time for lolly-gagging!"

The two men shuffled to get what was needed. As soon as he handed Ruffnut the cloth, Snotlout tried to walk away but he was only able to advance two steps before falling on the ground in a dead faint. Tuffnut dragged him away from Hiccup and Astrid, looking irritated.

Hiccup watched Astrid take deep breaths, her eyes shut and her head on his shoulder. She looked as if she was trying to physically tear herself away from the agonizing pain. He pulled his sleeve past his wrist and wiped her forehead with it. The cloth was soaked within seconds.

"You're going to be fine. I promise." Hiccup whispered into her ear in a very shaky voice.

"Hiccup," Astrid gasped, pressing the back of her head into his shoulder. "It hurts…"

"Shhh..." Hiccup shushed into her left ear and lightly kissing the nape of her neck. "It's okay. It's almost over."

Astrid felt another striking pain and gasped. "Liar..." she gritted her teeth. Hiccup breathed a laugh and kissed her cheek, making her look at him.

He smiled at her. "You've never looked more beautiful."

She rolled her eyes but smiled. "Shut up."

Hiccup shook his head, "Never."

At that moment, Fishlegs handed Ruffnut the bucket of water (made hot by Meatlug) and Ruffnut soaked the cloths in the water before carefully placing them underneath Astrid.

"Okay… I remember this part… Pull! Wait… that's not it… oh yeah! Push!" Ruffnut commanded, now holding out her hands so she would be able to catch the baby.

Astrid shook her head desperately, suddenly terrified. "No! I can't-"

Hiccup squeezed her hand. "Yes you can, Astrid. Just push and this'll all be over."

Astrid took a deep breath, braced herself, and pushed. The sound that tore from her throat caught her husband off guard, as did the sudden tightening of her hold on his left hand. But he didn't say a word as Ruffnut encouraged her, "That's it. Keep pushing."

"What's taking so long?" Tuffnut asked impatiently.

"I'm pushing a person out of my body, Tuffnut! I'll take as much time as I need!" Astrid snapped.

Ruffnut rolled her eyes and waved her brother away. "Shut up. Go get help!"

"But I wanna watch..."

" _Now_!"

Tuffnut reluctantly complied, hopping on Hookfang (as Barf and Belch needed two riders) and began flying off in the direction from which they came.

"What... no! Berk is that way!" Hiccup called after him. "Oh forget it..." he muttered.

Astrid panted hard for a minute, lying heavily on her husband. This was too much. She felt like all her energy had gone into that one push and nothing was left.

"Astrid, don't stop pushing." Ruffnut said, rolling her eyes. "How else are you gonna get the baby out?"

Astrid shook her head. She'd never felt pain like this before in her life. She just wanted it to be over. Tears continued to spill out of her eyes. "I can't-"

"Yes, you can," Hiccup whispered, kissing her temple. "You're Astrid Hofferson Haddock; you never back down from a challenge."

"Yeah," Snotlout butted in from the shadows, standing up and still looking dazed. "Surely you can handle a little natural pain…"

"SHUT UP BEFORE I COME OVER THERE!" Astrid roared.

Hiccup held her arm down as she tensed, hoping she wouldn't seriously _try_ to get up. He sent a glare to Snotlout, who ducked away when Astrid cried out again.

Ruffnut shook her head. "Astrid, you have to push!"

Astrid panted for another minute before gathering a deep breath and bending over, pushing as hard as she could. Hiccup felt the blood loss in his fingers, but he still said nothing.

"That's it; I can see more of the head." Ruffnut coaxed her. Astrid exhaled heavily and relaxed against her husband again, her face still very pale and sweaty. He wiped her face again as Ruffnut said, "Uhh, you're not done yet. There's still the rest of the head and the body..."

"Oh shut up!" Astrid groaned.

She breathed for another thirty seconds before steeling herself and pushing hard again, harder than she expected. Her grip on Hiccup's hand tightened the hardest and everyone jumped at a loud snapping noise. Hiccup's mouth tightened and Ruffnut glanced at his hand for a moment.

"Umm...Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked.

He shook his head, "Not now. It's fine."

Snotlout leaned to Fishlegs, "Was that…"

"His hand?" Fishlegs finished. "Yeah. She just broke his hand."

A high pitched wail pierced the air, interrupting the two men. Hiccup jerked at the sound with wide eyes. He felt his muscles relax a bit, breathing a sigh of relief. He didn't know much about babies but the sheer volume of his child's scream assured him that its lungs were in perfect working order. And then some. It was like a high pitched version of his father's booming voice.

"The head is out!" Ruffnut smiled. "Push again and then we'll see if it's a boy or a girl!"

Astrid continued to grit her teeth. "I'm going to _kill_ you, Hiccup."

"That's right; get this baby out so you can kill me." Hiccup smiled through the baby's screams, his heart pounding. He was really hearing his baby scream!

Astrid steeled herself again and with one last push, her baby was born. Ruffnut held the screaming baby, wiping it off with her vest. Then she held it up.

"It's a boy!"

Hiccup's face broke into a smile and Astrid sagged against him, panting but unable to tear her eyes off her child. Ruffnut leaned forward and handed the wailing baby to his mother.

"I knew it." Astrid whispered as she reached out to take her son.

Hiccup peered over her shoulder and looked at their baby. "Yes, you did." he lovingly kissed her temple.

As the crying newborn was placed into the new mother's arms, everything seemed to stop moving. She held him for a moment, completely at a loss as to what she was supposed to do next. But suddenly, everything clicked into place. This little baby who had spent the last 8 and a half months growing inside her was the most perfect, most beautiful creation she had ever seen.

And he was hers.

It didn't matter that she and Hiccup hadn't been married very long, that they really didn't know what they were doing. They would work it out. They would do it for this precious little person in her arms. Because he was worth it. Every bout of nausea, every mood swing and bizarre craving, every agonizing contraction, and ultimately protecting him from a madman... every little thing she had gone through in the last 8 and a half months. Completely worth it. A new love enveloped her and she immediately forgot everything she thought she felt about this baby. He was perfect.

_And he was hers_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, it is odd to come back to this scene after such a long time of writing for these characters. There are so many stories already written about this little boy growing up. And I'm posting them all here so you can read them!


	17. Miracle

Hiccup had never felt this way before. He had heard the parents in the village talk about it many times but had never paid attention to them. But now, as he gazed into the wrinkled, pink face of his newborn son, he felt as if his heart had grown several sizes bigger; enveloping the baby boy in a love so strong, he felt as if he would explode with it.

At first glance, the baby looked like, well, any other baby. But within moments, Hiccup could make out a slightly prominent nose, certainly his father's genes at work, and tufts of red hair atop his head. His newborn son already looked more like Stoick than _he_ did.

"He's so perfect." Hiccup said, unable to tear his eyes off of his son.

"He's going to be just like me." Astrid gently kissed his tiny forehead and was surprised at how soft it was.

"Gods, I hope so." Hiccup smiled, gently wiping some of the blood out of the baby's face. "Berk can only handle one of me at a time."

"You can say that ag-" Astrid began to say, but she stopped as a pain spiked up her insides. Just like before. She gasped and clutched her stomach with one hand. "What..."

Hiccup looked down at her with wide eyes, unsure what was happening. "Ruff, what's going on?"

"It's the afterbirth. Probably." Ruffnut looked unnervingly calm.

"Does it always hurt like this?" Astrid winced as another pain seemed to strike her as soon as the first left.

Ruffnut shrugged. "Not usually but sometimes... woah... I thought the water broke _before_ the baby was born!"

"What?" Astrid snapped, grimacing as the pain worsened. "It already did!"

"Well it just broke again!" Ruffnut stared at the new mother, her mouth agape.

Both Hiccup and Astrid's heads snapped forward, finally taking their eyes off of their son. Astrid began breathing heavily, the pains increasing.

"Tell us what's going on!" Hiccup demanded, feeling as if all his blood was draining out of his face.

"I just said her water broke again, which is impossible unless... unless... you are _not_ going to believe this!"

"Unless _what_?" Astrid shouted, her patience wearing thin.

"Unless there's another baby! It's _twins_!" Ruffnut announced gleefully.

Astrid leaned back onto her husband, panting heavily and shutting her eyes. "You have _got_ to be kidding me."

"Well you know what to do now." said Snotlout, still looking very pale. "Just push."

"I'LL PUSH _YOU_ IN A MINUTE!" Astrid shrieked, startling her husband.

She took a few deep breaths and then pushed as hard as she could, desperately wanting this to be over. Odin almighty, if there was another baby after this one, she really _would_ kill her husband.

Suddenly, Ruffnut visibly paled. "Oh gods…" she muttered. "Ohhhh gods…"

"What is it?" Astrid asked, violently trembling. "What's wrong?"

Ruffnut looked up at her, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. She quickly composed herself. "The baby's upside down, Astrid; listen to me." Ruffnut leaned forward, giving Astrid a very hard stare. "You have to get this baby out now."

"Do you..." Hiccup tried to form words. "Have you delivered a baby upside down before?"

Ruffnut opened her mouth but quickly closed it. The stories of babies born upside down weren't good... suffocation was common. But she wasn't about to tell them that. "No, I... what do I do? I can't..."

Fishlegs walked over and put his hand on her shoulder, keeping his eyes squeezed shut. "You can do this, Ruff. I know you can."

Ruffnut took a deep breath and forced herself to be calm. Hiccup and Astrid stared at her pleadingly; they needed her.

Hiccup suddenly squeezed himself out from behind his wife. "Let me help."

"What?" Astrid gasped.

Hiccup glanced apologetically at her as he squeezed out from behind her and scooted next to Ruffnut. "She's right, Astrid. The baby's coming out feet first! Push! You've got to get this baby out!"

Now that adrenaline had dwindled, Astrid had to work herself up to push more. When she relaxed, her heart seemed to stop for a moment. All of the color had drained out of Hiccup's face. His eyes widened and his shoulders slumped. Slowly, he reached out and brushed Ruffnut's hands out of the way so he could catch the baby's backside.

"Come on Astrid, one more push." he cried desperately, his eyes never leaving the baby.

Astrid complied. Subconsciously she gripped her son tighter. Her thoughts were blurred and her heart was torn. There could be no question about the gender of their second baby by reading Hiccup's body language, and it scared her even more. He wanted his little girl so badly but now her life, before it even began, was in jeopardy. And yet, she got to hold her perfectly healthy baby boy.

When she relaxed, she watched as her husband lifted their daughter and immediately cradled her close to his chest. His glossy eyes never left her face and his breathing was shaky, almost like he was fighting down tears.

"She's... she's not breathing." he whimpered so quietly Astrid almost didn't hear him.

The baby girl was pink like her brother but she made no movements, gave them no indication that she was alive. Hiccup held her as gently as he could, hoping against hope that by rocking her, by pouring every ounce of love he had for her into her tiny body, she would wake up.

"Come on, little girl… you can do this. Come on, breathe. Daddy needs you to scream at me like your big brother. Come on…" he wiped her little face with his sleeve, being meticulous around her nose, and fought down the horrible thoughts brewing in the recesses of his mind.

The baby didn't respond; she continued to lie in his arms, her skin slowly paling. Hiccup felt strangled inside. He didn't know what to do, what to say… he couldn't even look at his wife, or anything, but his little girl's unmoving face. He held her closer to his body, gently rocking her back and forth.

"Come on, breathe…" he whispered. "Daddy needs you to breathe, come on."

Astrid peeled her eyes away from her husband and toward the other end of their rocky strip, watching as a few dragons landed. Stoick the Vast hopped off of Thornado and Tuffnut soon followed, returning Hookfang to his human.

The Hooligan chief looked over at his daughter-in-law and was delighted to see his squirming grandson in her arms. He looked up to congratulate his son but stopped in shock at Hiccup holding a silent child.

His jaw tightened and he dipped his head, not saying a word. He couldn't bear to watch his son lose a child, primarily the girl Hiccup had so wanted. His memory recalled the panic and utter devastation he felt when he thought Hiccup had died after defeating the Red Death. For Hiccup to endure that pain himself... it wasn't right. Especially after everything they had gone through.

Hiccup stared into his daughter's face, begging the gods for her to live. Suddenly, he remembered holding the other woman in his life, begging the gods for the same thing. Feeling a surge of hope, he began to squeeze his daughter's stomach. Then, taking a deep breath, he leaned forward and blew into her mouth and nose. He repeated the action two, three times... nothing.

"Come on, breathe..." he whispered desperately.

It wasn't supposed to happen this way. This sort of thing was a freak accident that happened to a couple unexpectedly. Not to him. Not to Astrid. And not to their beautiful baby girl.

He leaned forward again but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Finally, he put his forehead to the baby's, letting out the tears he had been holding back. For a moment, no one could say anything. Time seemed to slow down as Hiccup held his lifeless daughter close, his tears streaming down her little face.

"Hiccup…" Stoick whispered from above him.

But a sudden sound interrupted him.

A strangled, choking noise came from the baby's throat. Hiccup's head snapped up and his eyes widened.

"Flip her!" Ruffnut lunged forward, flipped the baby, and smacked her on the back a few times.

"Ruffnut!" Hiccup and Astrid cried in unison, but Stoick held out a hand. He'd seen this done before

Suddenly, the baby took a deep breath and let out a loud, high-pitched, distinctly feminine (and slightly indignant) scream. Hiccup gasped and laughed at once, soaking in the sound as the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard. Her scream to breathe, to live... it was almost enough to make him cry.

"She's alive." he whispered to no one in particular.

Stoick crowed with laughter, Astrid squeezed a few more tears out her eyes and the other men joined their chief in laughter, slapping each other on the back. Hiccup held his daughter close to his chest as she cried, sighing in relief. But then he felt a movement coming from her that made him slightly uneasy.

"She's shivering..." Hiccup said, grabbing the edge of his shirt.

"I don't think so." said Snotlout, ripping off his own shirt. "Take mine. Fishlegs?"

But Fishlegs didn't respond on account of the fact that his lips were quite preoccupied with Ruffnut's. For a moment, everyone stared at the fiercely snogging, apparently new couple, transfixed with the unexpected sight. Then Hiccup turned back to Snotlout, apparently deciding not to comment on the couple's behavior.

"Thank you." He said as he handed the shirt to Astrid.

Snotlout shrugged in response, his eyes avoiding the couple now.

"Oy! Fishlegs! Take off your shirt." Ruffnut demanded quite suddenly.

"What?" Fishlegs looked horrified.

"For the baby, idiot."

"Oh." Fishlegs laughed and slipped his shirt off.

"And for me." Ruffnut winked and his cheeks turned slightly pink.

Hiccup wrapped the wailing baby girl in Fishleg's shirt. Her cries immediately quieted to a lesser volume when she was warmer, and when she shoved her fist in her mouth. Hiccup breathed a laugh and crawled over to sit by Astrid, who had their son wrapped up in Snotlout's shirt and lying against her chest.

Hiccup chuckled at her, "Well, that wasn't so bad."

Astrid looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "Oh shut up and kiss me you idiot."

And he did, probably a little sloppier than the rest of the group would have liked to witness.

* * *

Rather than try to fly Astrid back to Berk right after giving birth _twice_ , a healer was summoned to the tiny island to check her over and make sure the babies were healthy. At first, Astrid refused to relinquish their son, even for a minute, but she finally complied with the healer's instructions, feeling like she was missing a part of herself the entire time. Hiccup felt similarly about their daughter; after saving her, he didn't want anyone else to hold her for fear she would stop breathing again. He knew his fears were completely irrational but the memory of his limp, blue baby girl would haunt him for weeks. When the healer finally declared both babies healthy, Hiccup and Astrid decided to sail back to Berk rather than fly so that their babies would be safe.

When they arrived home, they were told that the babies would have to stay at the healer's house until they gained enough weight to go home. But the healer thought Hiccup's broken hand was a bit more of an issue.

"I'm going to have to set it." she said, giving him an apologetic look.

Hiccup, who was lying next to Astrid, nodded grimly. He shut his eyes, hoping that he wouldn't cry out and awaken his son and daughter, who were sleeping peacefully in the same crib. The healer placed her fingers on his mangled left hand and began to slowly set the bone.

The pain that exploded in his hand was almost more than he could handle. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to stay quiet for the sake of his children but, at the same time, he was beginning to appreciate his wife a lot more.

"If this is anything like what you went through this morning, I am really sorry." He gasped as the healer finally finished setting his hand.

"Oh Hiccup…" Astrid smiled and patted his shoulder. "It was so much worse than that."

"Well you're next, honey. Fortunately, I don't have as much to do for you unless there's a complication. And you seem to be okay so far." the healer smiled as she finished bandaging Hiccup's hand and headed over to Astrid. After a few minutes, the healer suddenly gasped and then let out an odd sort of groan. "Honey, you're going to be fine." She said, making them both sigh in relief. "But there's a lot of internal damage. I'm afraid those babies are the only children you're ever going to have."

"I could have told you that." Astrid said, lying back and resting her head on her arms. "I'm never doing that again."

But Hiccup felt differently. He bit his lip, looking at his wife and then the peacefully sleeping babies in the crib next to her.

"No more?" he asked in a tiny voice.

The healer shook her head but he had other problems, including the sudden bruise on his upper right arm.

Astrid rolled her eyes when he looked at her. "That is the most uncomfortable, painful, horrifying thing I have ever done and I am definitely _not_ going to do it again."

The healer looked between the two of them, her mouth slightly open, and then flashed them a very fake smile.

"I'll just leave you two alone while I tend to my other patients." She said, slipping out of the room and closing the door behind her.

For a moment, there was complete silence. Hiccup and Astrid lay next to each other, both slightly overwhelmed with emotion over what had just happened. The babies slept on, breathing quietly and keeping each other warm.

Hiccup spoke first, drumming the fingers on his right hand against his stomach. "What I said before was wrong, Astrid. And I can't possibly express to you how sorry I am."

Astrid gently reached out and slid her fingers into his. "You were angry. I know you didn't mean it."

But her words seemed only effective in causing a few tears to slip from her husband's eyes. "What I said was beyond reprehensible, Astrid. And if I hadn't lost it like that, our babies might not have been born so early. And you wouldn't have run off. And I would have been there for you when you were in labor and our daughter might not have almost died…"

"Hiccup, is it always going to be like this with you?" Astrid asked, tightening her grip on his hand so much her knuckles turned white.

He turned to look at her, letting out a small sniff. "Like what?"

"You blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong." she replied.

"I… I don't do…"

"You blamed yourself for the time I broke my arm."

"I couldn't catch you in time and…"

"And for getting me pregnant so soon after we got married."

"I wasn't careful enough…"

"And now for everything that happened last night? Hiccup… come on. Don't be ridiculous."

Hiccup gave Astrid a long, hard stare. "I'm not being ridiculous…"

"Look in that crib." She gestured to the crib just as their son shifted positions, cuddling up a little closer to his sister. "We made them together. You and me, Hiccup. Can you blame yourself for them?"

The young Viking was silent for a minute, his heart beating against his ribcage as he stared into the crib at the tiny babies born early that morning. And suddenly, he realized that his wife, his wonderful, amazing, _incredible_ wife was right. He had helped her make these tiny little people that had stolen his heart. The little boy whose voice had awakened him to the fact that he was actually a _father_ and the little girl whose life he had saved when all hope seemed lost. Instead of one child, he had been blessed with _two_. Two children to love and to play with and to teach… and the woman next to him had brought them into the world, into his life. As he looked back at her, he couldn't contain himself and, new tears slipping out of his eyes, he suddenly pressed his lips against hers.

And then suddenly he leaned back, another memory flooding into his brain.

"Astrid, I don't want to ruin this, I really don't, but I have to ask… about what you said before, I mean before everything went completely _insane_ …"

"Shhh." Astrid said suddenly, putting a hand on his mouth. "You're going to keep babbling forever if you keep that up."

He nodded. She was probably right. For a few seconds, they were silent. Astrid suddenly broke away from her husband and placed her hand inside the crib, gently stroking her son's hair. And then her daughter's cheek. Why had no one ever told her how wonderful they felt, how soft their skin and their hair was, how perfect their tiny little hands were… she had never felt love like this before. Her daughter suddenly reached out and gripped her finger in a surprisingly tight hold. And as Hiccup watched his wife's mouth turn upward in a smile, he knew he didn't need an answer to his question.

"You haven't held him." Astrid whispered, now reaching out both hands and gently lifting their son from the crib. "Here."

Very gently, she placed the baby boy into Hiccup's arms. He barely noticed when she then leaned over and carefully took her daughter out of the crib. He stared at the sleeping face of his son… and everything around them went silent. One day he would teach this little boy how to walk, how to talk, how to ride a dragon, heck, how to _shave_ … Hiccup's heart quickened as he realized that this little boy _needed_ him. This tiny, helpless baby in his arms couldn't survive without him and Astrid… and the thought was suddenly quite terrifying. While he had been excitedly preparing for their baby's arrival, he had failed to realize what being a parent really meant. And now, here, with his son nestled in his arms and his daughter looking up at her mother next to him, he felt completely unprepared. He had never done this before, had never cared for someone so fragile and helpless… what if he messed it up?

Without realizing it, he had muttered something out loud. Astrid heard this and gently nudged him.

"You won't mess this up." She whispered. "You've got me."

"They're so helpless." he replied, gently stroking his son's hair. "They depend on us for _everything._ "

"And we'll be there." Astrid leaned over and kissed her husband on the cheek.

He felt his mouth turn up in a small smile. "You're awfully confident now." he said, nudging his wife back.

"I've had a change of heart." Astrid replied, gently lowering her head to kiss her newborn daughter's forehead. "I guess I just had to meet them first."

For a moment, they were completely silent. They continued to stare at their children, unable to believe that their love for each other was so strong that they had actually made two babies, two people who belonged to them both. They had never felt so close to each other. Hiccup leaned over and kissed Astrid on the cheek, carefully maneuvering himself so that he wouldn't wake his son. At the sight of her parents' affection, the baby girl's mouth quirked slightly in a tiny half smile.

"Get used to it, honey." Astrid said, gently stroking her husband's cheek with her free hand. "You're going to be seeing this your entire life."

She kissed Hiccup on the nose and then, quite suddenly, both of them smiled widely and began to speak at the same time.

"I know what to name our son." said Astrid at the exact same moment her husband said "I know what to name our daughter."

They chuckled, both amused that they'd had almost the same thought at the same time. Hiccup leaned forward and whispered their daughter's name in Astrid's ear.

"Wow, Hiccup… it's perfect." she breathed, nudging his nose with hers.

She then leaned forward and whispered their son's name into Hiccup's ear.

"I think we just named our babies." he planted a kiss on Astrid's forehead.

Suddenly, the half a foot of space between them became too much. They both leaned into each other, Astrid laying her head down on Hiccup's shoulder and bringing their daughter closer to his view. Hiccup placed an arm around her and brought their son closer to his wife so that the babies were lying next to each other on their laps.

As they drifted off to sleep together as a family, Astrid thought that, for the first time in her life, she knew what it was like to be perfectly, blissfully content. And as she snuggled into her husband's arms, the large sigh she felt come from his chest assured her that he felt exactly the same way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha, fooled you! Guess what, it's TWINS! Hiccup gets his girl and Astrid gets her boy. And no more kids. I wanted to keep this series focused on just the two of them. To even be posting the birth of the twins is, as I said in the last note, very odd for me considering that as I post these, my co-author and I are writing them in their late teens! So much will happen and I look forward to sharing their journey with you!


	18. Welcome

When the twins had gained enough weight that the healer thought they would be able to go home, Hiccup and Astrid were ecstatic. For about ten seconds. And then they suddenly realized that they had a nursery waiting for _one_ baby. They hadn't been expecting two. When they eventually entered their home, untouched for a few weeks now, they looked at each other.

"I guess they can share the crib for now." Astrid said, gently rocking their son so that he would stay asleep.

"Yeah for _now._ They're not going to stay this small forever." Hiccup replied, grinning as their daughter suddenly sneezed but still managed to stay asleep. "And we're going to have to build a wall in the nursery to give them separate bedrooms."

"That's not a big deal, Hiccup. It'll be done in a week if everyone helps out." Astrid stared into the face of their sleeping son, a small smile tugging the corners of her mouth.

Hiccup loved watching her rocking one of their children like that. He had never seen that expression on her face until their babies were born but it was one of complete, perfect happiness. She had somehow gone from wishing they weren't having any children to not being able to be away from them for more than half an hour at a time.

Not that he blamed her. He felt a physical ache in the pit of his stomach whenever he wasn't in the same room as his children. Whenever one of them cried, it was almost a race between him and Astrid to reach the child first. With Hiccup's hand bandaged and often throbbing, he usually lost.

After only a few weeks, the babies already had different personalities. Within the first night, Hiccup and Astrid had noticed that the boy's cry was loud and jarring, not something they enjoyed waking up to, but the girl's was quieter and she made a funny hiccuping sound between wails. Astrid joked that it was a sign that their daughter would be a daddy's girl. But Hiccup didn't need a sign to know that. He could already tell from the fact that she couldn't seem to keep crying when she was nestled in his arms. The boy seemed to have a similar affinity for his mother. The boy was a morning person, preferring to wake his parents up at the crack of dawn while the girl was an evening person, waiting until almost midnight to settle in and fall asleep. These differences were minor but the new parents had a distinct feeling that their son and daughter's personalities would only differ more as they grew up.

* * *

The next day was a big one for everyone. After weeks of waiting (quite a bit longer than usual), the Haddock twins would be officially welcomed into the Hooligan tribe by their grandfather. Hiccup had been looking forward to this day for months. He'd already gotten his best outfit all ready to wear in front of the entire tribe.

"They won't even remember it." Astrid said, rolling her eyes as Hiccup straightened his shirt and attempted to tame his hair. "Calm down."

"This is a big deal, Astrid. We're getting in front of everyone. This is the first time most of the tribe has even seen our babies." His eyes suddenly widened. "Have we bathed them?"

"Yeah we did. They don't even smell like babies anymore." She watched him as he suddenly rushed across the room and grabbed a clean rag. "Oh don't polish your foot again; no one's going to notice it."

Hiccup snorted, trying to keep his laughter quiet so he wouldn't wake his children. "That's quite a statement. Imagine hearing that out of context!"

Astrid chuckled as silently as she could. "I think it's about time to go."

"Yeah… looks like it. Do I look okay?" Hiccup asked, finally deciding that his prosthetic was shiny enough.

"You looked fine half an hour ago. Now you look too dressed up." Astrid placed her hands on her hips but still smiled at her husband.

Hiccup scooped his baby boy out of the crib and gently rocked him so that he would stay asleep. It was tradition that the father held the baby if it was a boy and the mother if it was a girl. As they took the stroll to the Great Hall, where a lot of people were milling about, they received pats on the back and shouts of congratulations. Hiccup felt like he was on the top of the world. Here he was showing off his little creation to the world. This perfect little baby boy in his arms… and Astrid held his perfect little baby girl slightly behind him. Toothless and Stormfly followed, not wanting to get too close to the babies quite yet. Toothless had been very startled when he first heard one of them cry but he soon got used to the noise and to the tiny new people he wasn't allowed to play with yet. He was irritated that Hiccup wasn't flying quite as often but he also understood that his human's priority now was to take care of his young.

The dragons followed their humans into the Great Hall, where Stoick beamed at them. They stayed to the back of the room as the new parents came to the front, most of the village behind them. Stoick was reminded of Hiccup's Welcoming Ceremony; it had been just as packed and he'd almost gone hoarse from shouting to make sure those in the back could hear him.

As the village poured in to show their support for Hiccup and Astrid, they spotted Ruffnut and Fishlegs sitting next to each other, clasping each other's hands. And, to their great surprise, Snotlout sidled in next to them, his hand firmly gripping Heather's. Hiccup raised an eyebrow at Astrid, who grinned. They'd had a feeling about Snotlout and Heather but not until they saw the two of them together were they certain.

Stoick cleared his throat loudly and the entire hall went silent.

"When I first found out I was going to become a grandfather, I was… well, I'll be honest, I was completely shocked. Here was my son standing in front of me, only married two months, telling me that he was going to be a father!" A few people in the Hall chuckled appreciatively. "Ten years ago, if you had told me that my son and the most violent girl on Berk were going to get married and have children, I'd have told you that you were mad! But now, I'm standing here in front of my son, my daughter-in-law, my grandchildren, and I couldn't be prouder. These children are going to achieve great things."

Hiccup's heart soared. He had known that his father was proud of him but hearing it come from him in front of everyone made it all the more real. He gently handed his son to Stoick and whispered the intended name as he did so. Stoick beamed at him when he heard and very nearly forgot to speak as he stared into the face of his grandson.

"As chief, I officially welcome this baby into the Hooligan tribe and pronounce the name to be Fearless Finn Haddock!"

There was nearly deafening applause. The baby boy awoke and stirred slightly, staring up at his grandfather but apparently not finding this noise distressing enough to cry. The girl whimpered a bit but Astrid was able to calm her down. She stole a glance at her mother, who looked delighted that her grandson had been named after her daughter's favorite uncle. Finn was handed back to his father and Astrid stepped up to hand their daughter to her father-in-law. She whispered the baby girl's name as she did so and Stoick's smile widened.

"As chief, I officially welcome _this_ baby into the Hooligan tribe and pronounce the name to be Adrianna Miracle Haddock!"

Those who knew Adrianna's story clapped hardest as the baby girl was handed back to her mother. Astrid sighed in relief when she was finally holding her daughter again. The baby stirred slightly but remained silent, staring up at her mother as if to ask why everyone was making a fuss.

It was certainly a legitimate question. Once the ceremony was over, the crowd of Vikings pressed around them, all wanting to take a look at the newly named Finn and Adrianna. Hiccup was delighted to stand in the middle, accepting hearty congratulations and being slapped on the back, but Astrid was feeling irritated with the sheer number of people surrounding her. At long last, the crowd finally dissipated slightly, leaving only a small cluster of people around each baby.

"She's lovely." said an unfamiliar female voice.

Astrid turned her head and found herself facing an old woman she had never seen before. Something about her slightly unfocused gaze gave her an odd vibe, almost like she wasn't all there.

"Have we met?" Astrid muttered, not wanting to draw attention to this particular guest.

"Oh no, I've been hiding away." The woman tittered slightly. "May I hold her?"

Astrid's heart began thumping in her throat. "No… I just want to make sure she's safe."

This was astoundingly true. The woman had long, wispy gray hair that stuck out all over. There were bags under her eyes that made her look rather decrepit. Her hands were gnarled like branches of a tree and her entire body seemed to be covered with sagging wrinkles. Though she was probably in her mid fifties, she looked much older. She smiled in response to Astrid's statement.

"Oh pish posh, I won't be a minute." She said, suddenly grabbing the baby before Astrid could react. "Ohhh she is a beauty."

Astrid swallowed thickly. Ordinarily she would have threatened this woman but it seemed foolhardy to do so when she was holding her baby girl. Her heart raced and her stomach seemed to tighten painfully.

"May I… I'd like her back please." she said in a small voice.

"Why yes, dear. Of course." The woman gently placed the baby back in Astrid's hands.

Astrid's heart rate slowed and she let out a sigh of relief.

"She looks a little like me, don't you think?" the woman continued, smiling at the newborn.

Secretly, Astrid couldn't think of two people who looked _less_ alike but she wasn't about to voice that thought.

"Trista! What the Hel are you doing here?" Stoick suddenly boomed, stomping over to the old woman.

"Why I was only congratulating your daughter-in-law." The woman replied with a soft chuckle. "I meant no harm."

"Out. Get out _now._ " Stoick shouted, pointing to the door with a slightly trembling finger.

"Can't I say hello to my own grandniece?" the woman asked, still chuckling.

"I said OUT!" Stoick bellowed, now grabbing her shoulders.

The loud noise frightened Adrianna and she let out a wail. Astrid tried to rock her back to sleep but it was no use; there was too much commotion.

"Very well, very well." The woman gave him a disgusted look. She then turned back to Astrid. "Enjoy her. She really is a lovely little girl."

Spitelout, Lotus, and Gobber immediately stood between the bewildered new parents and Stoick as he roughly escorted the woman through the doors of the Great Hall.

A moment later, they heard Stoick bellow "UNFORTUNATE?"

Hiccup took a few steps forward, his curiosity getting the better of him. Spitelout held out a hand.

"No. You stay right here. This is not your fight." He said gravely.

Hiccup exchanged looks with Snotlout, who shrugged. A few minutes later, Stoick returned, his face beet red and trembling with fury. He strode over to a nearby bench and sat down, putting his face in his hands. Hiccup and Astrid slowly sauntered over, Adrianna's cries growing quieter once everything had calmed down.

"Who was she?" asked Hiccup, holding his son closer to his chest.

"Stay away from her." Stoick muttered.

"But…"

"The subject is _closed_ , Hiccup!" he suddenly snapped. "Now someone get me a drink."

* * *

As they strolled back home, Hiccup and Astrid talked about the woman, who she might have been and why Stoick had reacted so violently to seeing her.

"It doesn't make any sense. My dad's never mentioned…"

"Look, I'm tired of talking about this." Astrid said quite suddenly, plopping herself on the couch. "Can't we just put our babies to bed?"

Hiccup stared at her for a few seconds and then slowly nodded. Finn was wide awake but it was getting late and if he didn't get to sleep soon, he wouldn't fall asleep at all. Adrianna was, as usual a bit fussy now that night had fallen. Hiccup gently switched babies with Astrid, rocking his little girl so that she would be quiet once more.

"You know, Astrid… I think we're going to be okay." He said, smiling widely at his baby.

Adrianna very suddenly made a strange coughing sound. Hiccup gently put her on his shoulder and suddenly felt something moist oozing its way down his shirt. He moved his daughter out of the way and was dismayed to see a milky white liquid covering his shoulder.

"Oh… perfect." he said, ignoring his wife's silent laughter. "What a great way to end the day."

"Here." Astrid said, her face contorting with the effort of keeping her giggling silent. "Let me take her for a second."

Hiccup gently relinquished the baby girl, whose mouth quirked into another smile, almost as if she'd meant to do that, and took off his shirt. Astrid gasped. Maybe her pregnancy had made her immune to her husband's charm but now he was standing in front of her, his shirt off and his muscles toned and defined in the candlelight, her heart stopped for just a second.

Hiccup looked down at his bare chest and then up at his wife. "Did you forget about allll _this_?"

Astrid let out a moan, suddenly incapable of speaking coherently.

Hiccup grinned widely. "We should really get the kids to bed." He said, winking at her.

"Uhh huh." Astrid replied, handing the baby girl back to her father.

Slowly, so that they would keep their babies calm, they climbed the stairs to the nursery and placed the babies into the crib. They took turns leaning over and kissing both babies on the forehead and then looked back at each other.

"Come here, you." Hiccup whispered, suddenly grabbing his wife by the shoulders and pulling her toward him.

Their lips met and Astrid found herself going suddenly weak at the touch. For the first time in what felt like forever, she could press her body up against his without any interference. Her husband began to nibble on her lip and she let out a soft moan of pleasure.

"Like that, do you? Lots more where that came from." Hiccup whispered, taking a break from kissing her so he could softly kiss her neck.

"Don't I know it." Astrid placed her head on her husband's shoulder as his lips made their way to her shoulder.

Then suddenly, he stopped. Gripping her hand in his good one, he slowly led her out of their babies' bedroom and into theirs. He then turned back to her and placed his arms around her, unclasping her armored skirt so that it fell to the ground with a clatter. She reached up and kissed him again, her tongue darting between his parted lips. It was his turn to moan in pleasure as made his way to the bed, sitting down on it and then, when she adjusted herself so that she was sitting on his lap, lying backward.

It had been too long since they had felt this intimate. Hiccup's heart raced as Astrid began to kiss his chest, nibbling a little bit here and there.

"Hey…" he whispered. "What's that for?"

She looked up at him, a mischievous grin brightening her face.

"Well don't stop." He said, winking at her.

Suddenly, without any warning, he flipped them over so that he was lying on top of her. He gently placed his hands on her waist and drew her shirt up to her chest.

And then he stopped.

Astrid almost never let him see her belly while she was pregnant. And while she recovered, they weren't allowed to do what they were about to do. So he hadn't seen her stomach in months. He gently placed a hand on it, tracing each stretch mark with his finger.

"You're so beautiful, Astrid." He breathed, smiling widely.

"You don't have to say that, I know it looks kind of…"

"No." he said firmly. "Your stomach has never looked better." He leaned down and pressed his lips against it.

Astrid, who had been looking slightly unsure, smiled at him. "I love you, Hiccup."

Hiccup breathed a laugh and leaned up to face her. "And I love _you_ , Astrid."

He leaned in and gently brushed his lips against hers. He felt her sigh contentedly and his smile widened slightly as he slowly kissed her again. This woman beneath him, his amazing wife, had given him the greatest gift he could have asked for… and he was about to make sure she knew he was thankful.

Or he was about to. A high pitched wail from the babies' room made them both sigh sadly. Hiccup lowered his head, shaking it in disappointment.

"Mommy and daddy are a bit busy." Hiccup muttered to Astrid, who chuckled.

But the wailing grew louder until the second baby, whose cries were punctuated by tiny hiccups, joined the chorus. Reluctantly, Hiccup slid off of Astrid and got off the bed. They both padded to the babies' room, quietly lifting their children and slowly rocking them. Astrid sat down on a nearby chair and began to feed her son, stroking his back as she held him. Adrianna, who was only crying because of her brother, soon fell back to sleep in Hiccup's arms.

"I could get used to this." Hiccup whispered, grinning as she suddenly gripped his pinkie with a firm grasp.

"Yeah." said Astrid, staring down at the face of her tiny little son. "Me too."

* * *

**THE END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you enjoyed this story! Please come back for story 2: Little Miracles! I've certainly hinted at the events to come! In it, you'll meet Finn and Adrianna as toddlers and see their personalities budding. They're definitely their parents' kids! I'll be posting Little Miracles soon so please give it a read!
> 
> Please remember to leave a comment and let me know what you thought of this first installment of Growing Up Haddock!
> 
> ~KateMarie999


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